THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WORLD    ORGANIZATION 


BY 


RAYMOND    L.    ISRIDGMAN 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE   INTERNATIONAL  LTNION 
GINN  &  COMPANY,   BOSTON 


Copyright,  1905 
By   RAYMOND  L.  BRIDGIVIAN 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


3T^«^ 


NOTE 

Some  of  the  following  chapters,  in  more  or  less  dif- 
ferent form,  first  appeared  in  magazines.  "  The  World 
Legislature,"  first  of  the  series,  was  published  in  The 
Atlantic  Monthl I/,  March,  1903;  "National  Sovereignty 
Not  Absolute,"  in  The  Arena,  April,  1904;  "The 
World  Constitution "  appeared  in  The  Neiv  England 
Magazine,  July,  1904;  and  "The  World  Executive," 
in  the  September  number  of  the  same  periodical  of  the 
same  year.  "World  Organization  Secures  World  Peace" 
first  appeared  in  Tlte  Atlantic  Motithlg,  September,  1904. 
Acknowledgment  of  the  courtesy  of  the  publishers  of 
these  magazines  in  consenting  to  the  use  of  the  articles 
in  this  volume  is  hereby  gratefully  made  by  the  author. 


Ill 


627445 


CONTENTS 

Page 
Chapter  I — World  Unity 1 

Fiiuls  the  existing  unity  of  mankind  the  condition  from  which 
the  organization  of  tlie  world  as  a  single  political  body  is  sure 
to  be  developed. 

Chapter  II  —  National  Sovereignty  not  Absolute    .       6 

Urges  the  point  that  no  national  sovereignty  is  absolute,  but 
tliat  only  the  sovereignty  of  mankind  is  absolute. 

Chapter  III  —  The  World  Constitution 20 

Points  out  the  real  world  constitution  in  the  rights  and  rela- 
tions oF  individuals  and  of  nations,  and  calls  attention  to  a 
world  bill  of  rights  and  a  world  form  of  government  which  the 
nations  are  now  formulating,  thougli  both  are  still  unwritten. 

Chapter  IV  —  The  World  Legislature 41 

Shows  why  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  world  legisla- 
ture in  the  near  future  seems  necessary  and  probable  lor  the 
transaction  of  the  business  of  the  world. 

Chapter  V  —  The  World  Judiciary 55 

Holds  that  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration  is  likely  to  be  the 
foundation  of  a  world  judiciary. 

Chapter  VI  — The  World  Executive 63 

Forecasts  the  development  of  the  world  executive  depart- 
ment and  shows  how  germs  of  it  have  already  begun  to  grow. 

Chapter    VII  —  World    Legislation    already    accom- 
plished   71 

Cites  instances  of  world  legislation  now  in  practical  effect. 

V 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter  VTIT  —  World  Business  now  pending  ...     77 

Mentions  important  measures  of  world  business  already  press- 
ing for  attention  by  a  world  legislature. 

CiiAPTEH  IX  —  National  Constitutions 88 

Shows  that  widely  dissimilar  national  constitutions  are  not 
_^  an  obstacle  to  the  organization  of  the  world. 

Chapter  X  —  The  Supremacy  of  Races 92 

Gives  reasons  to  show  that  world  organization,  with  perma- 
nent national  boundaries  am!  secure  peace,  will  not  interfere 
with  the  virility  and  expansion  of  races  nor  check  beneficent 
forces. 

Chapter  XI  —  The  Mind  of  the  World 109 

Attempts  to  give  an  idea  of  the  world  enthusiasm  and  the 
woi"ld  impetus  which  would  follow  world  organization. 

Chapter  XII  —  Forces  active  for  World  Unity   .      .   123 

Presents  some  of  the  activities  which  are  already  operative 
for  the  unity  of  the  world. 

Chapter  XIII  —  World  Organization  secures  World 

Peace 128 

Sets  forth  that  permanent  peace  between  the  nations  will  be 
an  incident  of  the  organization  of  the  world,  one  among  other 
vast  benefits. 

Chapter  XIV  —  World  Peace 147 

Pictures  .some  of  the  respects  in  which  the  world  will  be 
revolutionized  and  prosper  under  the  inspiration  and  protection 
of  permanent  peace. 

Appendixes 159 

The  Appendixes  consist  of  documents  showing  the  course 
and  unexpectedly  successful  progress  of  the  present  formal 
movement  for  world  organization  until  it  was  given  a  recognized 
standing  in  the  programme  of  the  second  peace  conference  of 
the  nations  at  The  Hague. 


WOULD  ORGiVmZATIOI^ 


CHAPTER  I 
WORLD   UNITY 

In  the  following  pages  the  proposition  will  be  main- 
tained that  it  is  time  for  direct  work  to  organize  man- 
kind into  one  political  body.  Whether  the  consummation 
is  near  or  remote  is  not  a  pertinent  consideration.  The 
one  pertinent  fact  is  that  tlie  time  for  work  has  come. 

In  dealing  with  the  affairs  of  mankind  it  is  best  to  be 
honest  with  ourselves.  It  is  time  to  drop  falsehood  and 
to  admit  the  truth.  The  great  falsehood  in  world  affairs, 
seemingly  held  as  truth,  is  that  mankind  consists  nor- 
mally of  separate  portions  and  that  nations  rightfully  have 
absolute  sovereignty.  But  the  affirmation  here  made  is 
that  mankind  is  one,  and  that  above  the  sovereignty  of 
nations  is  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  as  a  single  body. 

Blame  is  here  imputed  to  no  one  for  the  persistence 
of  the  falsehood.  The  world  has  grown  up  in  it.  But 
the  world  is  wiser  and  better  than  ever  before.  The 
relations  of  the  masses  of  mankind  to  each  other  have 
changed  greatly  in  recent  years,  and  they  are  changing 
rapidly  as  time  goes  on.  If  no  action  is  taken  in  view 
of  the  changed  facts,  blame  may  hereafter  be  charged 
justly,  where  formerly  it  could  not  have  been  charged 
without  injustice. 

1 


2  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

This  effort  for  world  organization  makes  no  apology. 
It  seeks  only  to  secure  recognition  of  truth,  followed  by- 
action  based  upon  truth ;  and  it  can  justly  say  that  it 
has  a  rightful  claim  upon  the  attention  of  the  woiid. 
It  has  encountered  scoffing  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
visionary  or  premature,  but  it  is  confident  that  by  the 
power  of  truth  and  in  the  progress  of  events  the  scoffers 
will  be  converted  or  silenced ;  they  are  a  negligible 
quantity  compared  with  the  many  who  have  already 
given  the  effort  their  sincere  approval  and  are  working 
for  its  success. 

As  far  as  the  relations  of  men  are  concerned  the  most 
vital  truth  is  the  unity  of  the  race.  That  unity  will  in 
the  fullness  of  time,  by  its  very  nature  as  a  fundamental 
fact,  annihilate  all  divisive  forces  of  color,  language, 
religion,  prejudice,  class,  distance,  and  ignorance.  It 
will  hold  mankind  together  by  unbreakable  but  unbur- 
densome  bonds,  and  it  will  bring  permanent  peace  and 
prosperity  in  place  of  the  discord  and  loss  which  these 
divisive  forces  in  their  perverted  phases  entail  upon 
men,  and  will  make  them  subservient  to  their  true 
function  as  sources  of  benefit  in  their  diversity. 

For  all  purposes  of  progress  and  organization  it  is 
safe  to  rest  upon  this  foundation  of  world  unity.  We 
can  afford  to  leave  untouched  the  dispute  of  the  ethnol- 
ogists whether  the  races  are  of  single  or  plural  origin. 
If  they  came  from  one  stock,  it  accords  with  the  com- 
mon belief  and  with  the  declaration  of  Paul  on  Mars' 
hill  that  God  "hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  But  if 
the  races  are  of  plural  origin,  it  nevertheless  remains 


WOULD  UNITY  3 

true  that  the  most  diverse  races  are  so  nearly  alike  that 
many  able  men  of  science  still  hold  that  the  plurality 
has  not  been  demonstrated.  If,  therefore,  the  divergence 
of  the  extreme  types  is  so  slight  as  not  to  convince 
specialists,  it  may  safely  be  overlooked  as  a  practical 
factor  in  the  relations  of  races  to  each  other  and  of 
individuals  among  themselves  as  respectively  parts  and 
atoms  of  one  immense  whole. 

For  practical  purposes,  for  the  truth  as  to  the  fitness 
of  men  to  work  and  to  live  together,  for  the  truth 
regarding  their  mutual  rights  and  duties,  for  a  sound 
position  regarding  their  fundamental  equality  as  indi- 
vidual fi'ee  wills,  it  is  safe  to  proceed  on  the  theory  that 
mankind  is  one  in  origin,  and  that  the  unity  into  wliich 
the  individuals  are  created  is  a  stronger  centralizing 
force  than  any  diversity  caused  by  color,  climate,  lan- 
guage, religion,  or  social  condition. 

So  it  is  safe,  in  working  toward  the  political  unity  of 
mankind,  to  build  on  the  affirmation  that  every  human 
being  from  the  degraded  savage  in  the  depth  of  Africa 
to  the  consummate  flower  of  German  universities,  the 
perfection  of  royal  blood,  or  the  creation  of  Croesus' 
household,  is  born  into  a  unity  from  which  he  cannot 
escape,  in  which  he  has  rights,  and  to  which  he  owes 
service,  —  a  unity  which  comprehends  all  diversity  of 
human  types,  a  unity  which  will  triumph  over  all  divi- 
sive tendencies,  and  a  unity  which  will  attain  its  ideal 
only  when  it  has  organs  through  which  it  can  act  when, 
in  the  might  and  enthusiasm  of  world  consciousness, 
world  pinpose,  and  world  will,  it  reaches  the  sublime 
heights  of  its  own  being,  recognizes  its  own  dignity  and 


4  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

capacity,  and  essays  to  do  what  is  befitting  its  lofty  nature 
in  order  to  promote  its  own  peace  and  prosperity. 

It  is  not  to  the  point  to  aflirm,  even  though  it  be  true, 
that  hitherto  the  divisive  tendencies  have  mastered  the 
vital  unity  of  mankind  and  made  the  nations  present 
the  pitiable  and  needless  spectacle  of  fragments  of  the 
race  in  deadly  collision.  It  is  not  conclusive  against  pres- 
ent progress  to  show  that  in  the  past  the  nations  have 
been  like  robbers  greedy  of  the  property  of  their  victims, 
or  like  wild  beasts  thirsting  for  each  other's  blood.  A 
new  era  has  come.  "  Old  things  are  passed  away." 
Arbitration,  already  spoken  of  as  an  epidemic  among 
the  nations,  promises  to  substitute  a  world  court  for 
war  as  a  means  of  settling  international  differences. 
Repeated  instances  of  special  world  legislation  by  con- 
ferences or  congresses  representing  all  nations  of  the 
earth,  or  at  least  many  of  the  great  Powers,  foretell  the 
development  of  a  world  legislature  with  true  legislative 
functions  for  all  mankind,  while  the  germ  of  a  world 
executive  which  has  already  begun  its  feeble  existence 
gives  promise  of  the  day  when  the  world  administration 
will  be  developed  to  the  full  energy  of  an  official  organ. 

Mankind,  being  one  body,  must  have  organs  if  it  is  to 
do  anything ;  and  political  bodies  are  completely  equipped 
with  organs  when  they  have  those  that  will  furnish  a 
means  to  express  the  intelligence  and  the  will  of  the 
organism,  a  means  to  determine  whether  the  will  applies 
to  particular  cases,  and  a  means  to  carry  out  the  will.  In 
other  words,  a  political  organism  must  have  legislative, 
judicial,  and  executive  departments  ;  having  these  in  due 
efficiency  and  detail,  its  organization  is  complete. 


WORLD  UNITY  5 

To  secure  this  organization  is  the  present  duty  of  all 
who  would  promote  the  largest  degree  of  peace  and 
prosperity  for  all  mankind.  Witli  organization  the 
warring  of  the  factions  of  the  body  will  cease,  and  the 
energies  of  the  race  can  be  devoted  to  overcoming  inter- 
nal evils  which  in  the  relations  of  classes  and  of  persons 
derange  the  health  of  the  body.  With  justice  to  every 
part,  which  is  demanded  by  the  health  of  the  whole, 
will  be  secured  health  for  every  part.  With  all  parts 
working  together  witJi  a  common  consciousness  of  unity, 
the  prosperity  and  the  enjoyment  of  all  individuals 
included  in  the  mighty  whole  will  so  far  exceed  any 
present  enjoyment  that  the  existing  order  of  things, 
disorganized,  crippled,  inefficient,  and  diseased,  will  be 
looked  back  upon  with  amazement  and  shuddering. 

Organization  is  tlie  inexorable  condition  for  attain- 
ing this  culmination  of  good.  It  has  already  begun  to 
come.  The  new  order  of  things  is  already  here.  It  is 
time  now  to  promote  intelligently  what  has  been  com- 
ing without  full  comprehension  by  the  actors  in  the 
events,  though  they  have  surely  been  filled,  hi  many 
cases,  with  the  inspiration  and  strength  of  prophetic 
vision.  We  have  a  clearer  outlook  than  they,  and  it  is 
now  our  opportunity  to  work  in  tlie  l)righter  light  and 
with  the  better  understanding  which  the  progress  of 
events  has  given  us.  Events  have  biought  mankind  to 
the  stage  in  which  it  seems  ready  to  realize  the  formal 
unity  for  which  it  is  fitted  and  for  which  it  seems  to 
have  been  created. 


CHAPTER  II 
-NATIONAL  SOVEREIGNTY  NOT   ABSOLUTE 

Directly  across  the  path  of  the  movement  to  organize 
the  world  stands  the  obstacle  of  absolute  national  sov- 
ereignty as  it  is  asserted  by  the  nations.  But  this 
obstacle  is  not  insupeiable,  for  in  a  large  view  of  the 
world  there  is  no  such  tiling  as  the  absolute  sovereignty 
of  any  nation.  Upon  that  point  world  education  is 
necessary  in  order  to  establish  a  secure  foundation  for 
the  organization  of  the  world  which  seems  sure  to  be 
developed  with  the  progress  of  mankind. 

What  increases  the  difficulty  in  this  world  education 
is  the  fact  that  no  precedent  exists  in  favor  of  the  posi- 
tion to  be  established.  On  the  contrary,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  history  an  unbroken  line  of  precedents  of 
unquestioned  authority  exists  in  favor  of  national  sover- 
eignty. The  argument  therefore  flies  in  the  face  of  the 
universal  experience  of  mankind.  Yet  the  organic  unity 
of  the  race  is  foreseen  by  an  increasing  number  of  men, 
and  the  demonstration  which  is  sufficiently  clear  already 
for  the  prophetic  is  being  rapidly  facilitated  by  the  opera- 
tion of  steam  and  electricity  in  bringing  the  ends  of  the 
world  together.  In  due  time,  as  the  workers  for  world 
organization  believe,  in  spite  of  the  unbroken  line  of 
precedents,  the  world  will  admit  that  absolute  national 
sovereignty  is  a  relic  of  a  barbaric  past  and  that  world 

6 


NATIONAL  SOVEREIGNTY  NOT  ABSOLUTE         7 

sovereignty  is  the  dominant  fact  in  the  relations  of  the 
nations  to  each  other. 

The  fact  that  precedent  is  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of 
national  sovereignty  ought  not  to  be  finally  convincing 
in  view  of  the  velocity  of  progress  which  to-day  has 
little  mercy  for  the  doubts  and  timidity  of  conservatism. 
Our  average  American  realizes  to-day  what  was  not 
realized  in  the  past  by  tyrants,  emperors,  and  great 
moguls,  —  that  he  who  stands  in  the  way  of  progress 
will  suffer  a  collision,  and  that  it  is  not  the  car  of 
progress  which  will  be  overturned. 

Why  can  there  be  no  such  thing  as  absolute  national 
sovereignty?  Because  outside  of  every  nation  which 
may  claim  to  be  absolutely  sovereign  exist  organized 
communities  of  men  over  whom  it  has  no  sovereignty 
and  over  whom  it  claims  no  sovereignty.  The  mere 
existence  of  such  communities  establishes  relations 
between  them  and  any  nation  which  may  claim  to  be 
sovereign,  —  since  both  are  upon  the  same  planet,  — 
and  conditions  and  limitations  are  imposed  upon  any 
nation  which  may  claim  to  be  supreme.  It  is  true  that 
any  nation  may  deny  the  fact  of  such  limitations,  may 
ignore  the  existence  of  outside  nations,  may  erect  an 
intended  impassable  barrier  around  itself  and  establish 
a  national  policy  of  attempted  absolute  sovereignty. 
But  there  is  only  one  China,  and  the  experience  of  that 
country  proves  the  folly  of  trying  to  deny  the  supreme 
fact  in  the  empire's  existence.  Greater  in  the  liistory 
of  any  nation  than  the  fact  of  its  sovereignty  within  its 
limits  is  the  fact  that  the  world  is  greater  than  itself,  and 
that  to  ignore  this  supreme  condition  is  supreme  folly. 


8  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

The  existence  of  other  nations  is  itself  a  conclusive 
reason  why  no  nation  can  be  absolutely  sovereign.  It 
must  have  relations  with  its  neighbors.  Those  relations 
must  affect  its  internal  policy.  In  fact,  it  is  recognized 
in  civilized  governments  that  treaties  are  a  part  of  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land.  Whatever  party  Inay  be  in 
power  in  a  nation,  agreements  and  formal  relations 
established  with  other  nations  must  be  recognized,  at 
whatever  disregard  of  the  national  legislation.  To  this 
extent  already  has  the  world  advanced  in  recognizing 
the  limitations  upon  national  sovereignty. 

It  is  in  the  very  nature  of  things  that  nations  recog- 
nize their  limitations  and  establish  this  principle  of  the 
supremacy  of  treaties.  The  fundamental  fact  is  that 
outside  of  themselves  are  other  peoples  who  will  do 
something  to  them  unless  they  act  so  as  not  to  hurt 
those  other  peoples.  Even  if  a  nation  supposes  that  it 
can  act  as  it  pleases  inside  its  own  limits,  it  finds  its 
mistake  if  it  passes  beyond  a  certain  line  which  the 
sensibilities  or  common  sense  of  outside  nations  regard 
as  the  limit  of  conduct  to  be  tolerated.  Spain  in  Cuba 
is  a  sufficient  illustration  for  the  people  of  this  country, 
while  the  condemnation  of  the  European  governments 
by  the  outraged  sentiment  of  Christendom  for  failing 
to  prevent  the  massacres  of  the  Armenians  illustrates 
what  would  have  been  the  verdict  of  civilization  if 
those  unspeakable  horrors  had  been  stopped  by  force. 
Slave  traders  and  pirates  are  recognized  as  common 
enemies  of  mankind,  and  slave-trading  and  piratical 
peoples,  as  in  the  case  of  Arabs  in  equatorial  Africa 
and  the  Mediterranean  pirates  of  the  early  days  of  the 


NATIONAL  SOVEREIGNTY  NOT  ABSOLUTE         9 

American  republic,  can,  in  so  far  as  their  deeds  offend 
the  common  conscience  of  other  nations,  be  rightfully 
deprived  of  sovereign  powers  at  the  will  of  these  nations, 
with  no  claim  to  redress. 

When  we  come  to  examine  thus  the  positions  already 
held  by  civilized  nations,  it  is  clear  that  they  practically 
recognize  material  encroachments  upon  the  principle  of 
national  sovereignty.  In  order  to  secure  assent  to  a  posi- 
tion essential  to  successful  world  organization,  a  further 
clearing  up  of  ideas  rather  than  any  radical  change  is 
the  need  of  the  hour.  Common  conditions  imposed  upon 
all  nations  make  their  status  substantially  the  same  in 
their  relation  to  each  other.  Each  people  exercises  a 
limiting  and  conditioning  influence  upon  every  other 
people.  Each  must  recognize  conditions  which  every 
other  must  recognize.  It  is  for  the  common  good  that 
these  conditions  be  submitted  to. 

It  is  somewhat  with  nations  as  it  is  with  men. 
Nations  are  sovereign ;  men  are  free.  But  the  recog- 
nized limitations  upon  the  free  action  of  men  are  no 
more  real  than  the  limitations  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
nations.  From  the  savage  up  to  the  highest  product  of 
civilization,  the  individual  man,  with  a  will  truly  free, 
is  yet  so  limited  by  circumstances  that  his  freedom  is 
rather  a  freedom  of  choice  between  riglit  and  wrong 
than  full  freedom  of  choice  regarding  the  acts  of  life. 
The  savage  is  not  under  a  code  of  enacted  law  like  the 
citizen  of  the  United  States;  but,  in  addition  to  the 
restraints  of  force  put  upon  him  by  surrounding  savages, 
he  must,  even  if  he  is  chief  of  his  tribe,  work  or  hunt  or 
fight  in  order  to  maintain  his  family  and  his  position. 


10  WORLD  ORGANIZATION  _ 

The  civilized  man,  in  addition  to  the  code  of  enacted 
law,  is  under  other  imperative  conditions.  Whether  he 
exerts  himself  in  the  pulpit,  or  at  the  bar,  or  at  the  i>low, 
he  is  surrounded  by  conditions  not  of  his  choosing,  at 
many  of  which  he  may  chafe,  but  which  he  is  forced  to 
observe,  though  he  is  at  every  moment  of  his  life  a  per- 
^son  with  free  will.  Free  men,  as  they  develop  from  the 
savage  state  up  to  the  condition  of  subjection  to  formal 
law,  have  recognized  their  relations  to  each  other  and 
have  become  organic  communities.  Just  as  truly  the 
nations,  organic  within  themselves,  are  on  tlieir  way  to 
the  organic  unity  of  the  whole  of  mankind,  and  the  attain- 
ment of  organic  unity  by  a  race,  or  by  the  people  under 
one  government,  is  warrant  and  prophecy  of  the  attain- 
ment of  the  organic  unity  of  all  mankind.  When  that 
organic  unity  shall  have -been  attained,  mankind  must 
have  some  organic  form  of  expressing  its  will  regarding 
the  interrelations  of  the  several  parts,  and  the  world 
legislature  is  sure  to  come.  Such  an  organ  of  expression 
would  correspond  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
for  the  states  composing  the  political  body  over  which 
it  lias  jurisdiction  ;  and  there  would  be  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  subjects  demanding  the  attention  of  the 
world  legislature  as  long  as  there  was  any  progress 
by  mankind. 

Interpreting  history  in  this  light,  the  experience  of 
the  nations  in  their  development  up  to  their  present 
{)oint  of  government  by  law  illustrates  the  process  which 
is  going  on  toward  the  recognition  of  a  law  of  mankind 
superior  to  all  laws  of  nations.  The  sovereignty  of  man- 
kind, though  not  yet  formally  established,  is  so  clearly 


NATIONAL  S()YERETC;NTY  NOT  ABSOLUTE        11 

indicated  by  the  progress  of  man  that  it  seems  only  a 
short  step  to  the  formal  recognition  of  that  world  sov- 
ereignty which  is  a  necessary  condition  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  formal  body  politic  of  the  world. 

What  is  it  which  the  nations  are  asked  to  recognize 
in  the  case  of  world  organization,  as  the  proposition 
now  stands?  It  is  the  simple,  supreme  fact  that  con- 
ditions are  over  them  which  they  did  not  create,  which 
are  inexorable  in  their  demands  for  recognition,  and 
whose  penalties  are  inevitable  if  they  are  disregarded. 
"  Mankind  is  one.  Will  you  admit  it?  "  That  is  practi- 
cally the  form  in  which  the  question  comes  to  the  nations. 
Suppose!  that  the  United  States  invites  the  nations  of 
the  world  to  a  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  establisliing 
a  legislative  body  for  the  world.  Will  the  nations,  in 
acting  upon  such  an  invitation,  insist  upon  their  sover- 
eignty to  the  extent  of  refusing  to  agree  to  world  legis- 
lation unless  it  is  ratified  by  the  home  government? 
Such  will  be  their  attitude  at  first,  for  nations,  like  men, 
are  slow  to  surrender  the  form  of  powei-.  But  ulti- 
mately, viewed  in  regard  to  their  relation  to  mankind, 
it  would  be  as  unwise  and  as  obstructive  to  progress 
for  the  nations  to  insist  upon  their  formal  national  sov- 
ereignty as  it  would  have  been  for  tlie  states  of  the 
United  States  to  have  insisted  that  no  act  of  Congress 
should  be  valid  within  their  limits  until  it  had  been 
approved  by  the  state  governments. 

World  relations  are  not  things  of  human  creation. 
The  unity  of  mankind  is  not  some  scheme  which  cer- 
tain men  have  evolved  out  of  their  imaginations  and 
are  trying  to  foist  upon  the  world  as  a  machine  which 


12  WORLD   ORGAXTZATIOX 

promises  to  work  well.  Nations  are  put  into  the  con- 
ditions in  which  they  find  themselves.  Already,  to  a  con- 
siderable degree,  they  recognize  these  conditions.  They 
seem  to  go  halfway  ;  but  their  timid  men  are  profoundly 
unwilling  to  go  the  other  half  of  the  way,  —  to  admit 
that  they  are  really  under  conditions  which  are  supreme 
an3  in  the  recognition  of  which  they  will  really  find 
their  greatest  peace  and  prosperity. 

Recoofnition  of  truth  cannot  hurt  either  men  or 
nations ;  denial  of  truths-must  always  hurt  both.  The 
challenge  to  the  timid,  then,  is  this,  —  that  nations  are 
not  ultimately  and  supremely  sovereign,  that  they  are 
parts  of  an  organic  whole,  and  that  the  recognition  of 
this  will  be  for  their  unspeakable  advantage  ;  it  will 
harmonize  them  with  conditions  which  are  stronger  than 
national  power  and  which  must  be  obeyed  to  secure  the 
highest  development.  If  any  objector  seeks  to  prove 
that  nations  are  absolutely  sovereign,  that  mankind  is 
essentially  fragmentary  and  conflict  the  only  prospect, 
he  will  make  a  picture  darker  than  the  gloomiest  pes- 
simist has  yet  painted  for  the  future  of  mankind. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  another  consideration,  — the  readiness 
of  the  world  for  such  organization  as  will  recognize 
the  sovereignty  of  mankind  and  demonstrate  practically 
that  nations  are  only  parts  of  one  organic  whole.  Most 
pertinent  of  the  many  facts  which  might  be  gathered  is 
the  concert  of  the  Powers  of  Europe.  In  the  light  of 
the  formal  relations  of  nations  here  is  a  very  singular 
condition.  So  far  as  we  know  or  have  reason  to  believe, 
there  exists,  as  the  basis  of  this  concert,  no  treaty  what^ 
ever,  no  formal  or  informal  alliance,  but  only  mutual 


NATIONAL   SOVERETC.NTY  NOT   ABSOLUTE       13 

good  will  or  recognition  of  mutual  interest  upon  the 
matters  regarding  which  there  is  concert  of  action,  and 
an  agreement  of  judgment  upon  the  policy  which  is  to 
be  pursued.  That  is,  in  their  relations  among  them- 
selves as  a  group  having  similar  relations  to  outside 
nations,  they  recognize  the  common  conditions  which 
are  over  them  all  and  shape  their  conduct  accordingly. 
Practice  under  those  conditions  is  steadily  at  work  set- 
ting up  a  line  of  precedents  and  shaping  the  course 
which  will  be  follow^ed  in  the  future  for  the  internal 
peace  of  the  group  and  for  its  combined  strength  among 
the  nations  as  a  whole.  In  a  dim  and  partial  way  the 
concert  of  Powers  is  a  recognition  of  the  world  consti- 
tution, and  it  foreshadows  a  wider  field  of  agreements 
among  nations  whereby  the  organic  unity  of  all  will  be 
recognized  and  the  prosperity  of  all  will  be  promoted. 

A  pertinent  illustration  of  nations  acting  by  a  com- 
mon understanding,  without  written  agreements,  is  the 
joint  action  by  the  United  States,  Russia,  Germany, 
England,  France,  Italy,  and  other  nations  in  the  troubles 
in  China. 

These  illustrations  may  be  reenforced  by  the  list  of 
over  thirty  international  conferences  or  congresses  which 
have  been  held  since  1815,  —  some  of  them  attended  by 
representatives  of  large  groups  of  nations,  —  and  more 
especially  by  the  establishment  of  the  Hague  Court  of 
Arbitration.  Unity  of  action  by  groups  of  nations  for 
their  common  benefit  is  becoming  increasingly  frequent. 
It  is  found  practicable  for  the  nations  to  act  together ; 
they  have  tried  it  repeatedly  and  have  succeeded.  It 
is  no  longer  an  experiment. 


14  AVORLD  ORGANIZATION 

World  progress,  then,  has  reached  the  point  where  it 
seems  almost  ready  to  crystalize  around  the  unity  of 
mankind  as  the  organic  principle  of  existence.  The 
fullness  of  time  seems  almost  here.  Practically  the 
nations  have  been  acting  for  years  upon  the  same 
principle  which  they  would  act  upon  if  they  formally 
adnlitted  that  their  sovereignty  was  not  absolute  but 
limited  by  and  subordinate  to  the  sovereignty  of  man- 
kind. Treaties  and  alliances,  known  to  ancients  and 
moderns  alike,  have  been,  attended  in  recent  years  by 
further  development,  until  a  group  of  nations  acts  with- 
out written  constitution  or  binding  promise  upon  a  pol- 
icy toward  the  one  nation,  China ;  while  a  concert  of 
Powers  of  the  great  nations  of  Europe  holds  the  rudder 
true  for  a  continuous  policy  regarding  Avhatever  matters 
may  transpire  that  involve  their  common  welfare. 

Does  not  this  condition  demonstrate  the. existence  of 
higher  power  than  national  sovereignty,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  that  existence  by  the  nations  themselves?  It 
would  seem  as  if  statesmen  were  behind  the  times  in 
not  formally  recognizing  what  is  so  evident.  World 
unity  seems  ready  to  drop  like  a  ripened  fruit  into  the 
hand  of  the  nation  which  will  first  pluck  it  and  pre- 
sent it  to  mankind.  Alreadv  the  nations,  like  a  team 
learning  to  pull  together,  have  had  practice.  They 
would  not  enter  upon  their  new  formal  relation  with- 
out experience,  if  they  should  establish  genuine  world 
organization;  they  would  merely  exert  further  the  powers 
they  have  already  exerted  in  groups,  and  they  would  con- 
cede to  the  entire  world  only  what  they  have  practically 
conceded  to  each  other  in  less  extended  relations. 


NATIONAL  SOVEREIGNTY  NOT  ABSOLUTE        15 

Nominally  world  sovereignty  does  not  exist.  Nomi- 
nally each  nation  is  absolute  sovereign,  contradictory 
as  this  idea  is  to  the  admitted  facts  in  each  nation's 
existence.  This  condition  brings  us  face  to  face  with 
the  fact  that  the  most  important  condition  which  can 
exist  on  earth  for  mankind  is  not  yet  formally  admitted 
to  exist.  The  entity  of  the  unity  of  mankind  is  denied 
by  the  present  doctrine  regarding  the  sovereignty  of  the 
nations.  We  are  therefore  on  a  fundamentally  wrong 
basis.  This  error  is  not  merely  theoretical ;  it  is  most 
vitally  practical ;  it  concerns  the  progress  of  mankind 
more  than  any  other  political  or  social  truth  which 
remains  to  be  proclaimed.  Up  to  the  present  moment 
the  nations  assert  that  diverse  races  and  nations  have 
hostile  interests,  —  that  what  is  for  the  good  of  one 
is  for  the  injury  of  another.  Humanity  has  consisted 
of  colliding  fragments  crashing  upon  each  other  for 
mutual  injury  and  destruction,  save  as  the  greater  truth, 
which  they  do  not  yet  recognize,  has  counteracted  the 
theory  upon  which  the  nations  exist  as  sovereign.  But 
the  greater  truth  is  overcoming  the  error,  and  we  can 
already  see,  evidently  in  the  near  future,  the  recognized 
supremacy  of  the  sovereignty  of  all  mankind  as  the  dom- 
inant truth  in  the  relations  of  the  nations,  with  iiational 
sovereignty  relegated  to  its  proper  subordinate  place. 

Sound  theory  and  right  practice  unite  in  world  sov- 
ereignty. By  the  theology  which  shaped  the  early 
development  of  the  United  States,  Avhose  truth  is  seen 
in  the  vitalit}'  of  the  American  principles  of  government, 
no  person  was  in  his  natural  and  right  relation  unless 
he  was  in  harmony  with  the  powers  supreme  over  his 


16  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

personal  life.  This  truth  is  applicable  to  nations  as 
well  as  to  persons.  Unless  nations  are  in  their  right 
relation  to  the  supreme  conditions  amid  which  they 
exist,  they  will  suffer  from  constant  frictions,  collisions, 
disturbance  of  peace,  destruction  of  wealth,  and  the 
ceaseless  wastes  which  accompany  want  of  harmony  with 
the-laws  which  are  supreme  over  them. 

Mankind  as  a  whole  comes  under  the  same  truth.  If 
it  is  not  acting  as  an  organic  whole  when  organic  unity 
is  its  normal  condition,  thep  progress  must  be  hapiiazard, 
slow,  seriously  checked  at  times,  and  in  every  way  infe- 
rior to  the  advance  w'hich  might  be  made  if  the  obstruc- 
tions were  removed.  Nations  severally  and  mankind  as 
a  whole  can  find  their  greatest  prosperity  only  by  adjust- 
ment to  the  higher  law.  They  must  put  themselves  into 
harmony  with  forces  which  condition  their  very  existence 
and  constantly  control  their  action.  The  historic  fact 
that  hitherto  nations  have  shut  their  eyes  to  the  condi- 
tions has  not  removed  or  weakened  them.  They  are  over 
each  nation  to-day,  inexorable  if  neglected  or  defied,  but 
full  of  beneficence  if  obeyed. 

Throughout  the  swift  succession  of  events  which 
will  surely  culminate  in  the  formal  organization  of  the 
world,  in  the  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  world 
constitution,  and  in  the  consequent  more  rapid  prog- 
ress of  mankind,  the  United  States  will  surely  take  a 
leading  part.  Though  we  did  not  originate  the  Hague 
Court  of  Arbitration,  we  carried  to  it  the  first  case  it  had, 
and  thereby  set  the  example  of  making  that  court  a  prac- 
tical force  among  nations.  Leadership  for  world  organi- 
zation is  in  accord  with  the  ambition  of  our  people  and 


NATIONAL  SOVEREIGNTY  NOT  ABSOLUTK        17 

in  line  with  our  institutions.  It  is  a  logical  consequence 
of  our  daily  principles  and  practice  more  than  is  the  case 
with  any  other  nation  of  the  world.  It  accords  with 
American  largeness  of  ideas  and  with  our  fondness  for 
a  wide  field  of  action.  American  leadership  would  pro- 
mote world  prosperity,  peace,  and  progress  unspeakably 
more  than  any  other  step  that  can  be  imagined.  It  would 
involve  unselfish  sinking  of  ourselves  in  the  larger  whole, 
but  it  would  be  an  unselfishness  that  would  give  us  a 
nobler  pride  than  any  narrower  course  could  possibly 
awaken.  It  would  mark  fur  all  time  the  most  important 
epoch  in  the  history  of  mankind  as  a  unit ;  and  that 
fact  alone,  whatever  the  mutations  of  nations  and  what- 
ever the  degree  of  world  progress  in  the  numberless 
centuries  to  come,  would  inake  the  name  of  the  Uidted 
States  of  America,  should  it  rise  to  this  high  leadership, 
immortal. 

We  are  united  in  practice,  to  a  larger  degree  than  the 
people  of  any  other  country  in  the  world  which  can  com- 
pare at  all  favorably  with  ours  in  size  and  prestige,  upon 
the  very  principles  of  political  organization  and  action 
which  must  be  recognized,  in  a  wider  scope,  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  world.  Ours  is  the  fitness  for  the  initial 
step,  and  the  fitness  which  makes  the  opportunity 
imposes  also  the  duty.  The  United  States,  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  has  the  qualifications  for  contribut- 
ing to  the  advancement  of  mankind  in  this  matter  more 
than  any  other  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

But  natio!)s  maybe  suspicious.  They  may  not  see  the 
prodigious  strength  and  scope  of  the  idea  which  we 
present  to  them.    It  is  for  the   people  of  the   United 


18  WORLD  OlUiANIZATlON 

States,  then,  to  disarm  botli  opposition  and  criticism  by 
taking  the  attitude  which  will  most  surely  induce  other 
nations  to  listen  to  its  proposition  and  to  follow  its 
example.  Since  renunciation  of  the  claim  of  absolute 
sovereignty  in  the  presence  of  world  sovereignty  is  a 
condition  of  attaining  the  highest  ideal,  the  United 
States  ought  to  stand  before  the  world  frank  and  open- 
handed  and  say  that  it  offers  to  recognize  world  sover- 
eignty as  supreme  in  matters  relating  to  world  interests, 
thus  carrying  up  to  a  higher  level  the  principles  it  al- 
ready recognizes  in  its  internal  relations.  With  that 
offer,  sincere,  never  to  be  withdrawn,  always  to  be  built 
upon  by  other  nations,  a  positive  foundation  would  be 
laid  for  the  development  of  a  world  organization  which 
would  in  time  include  legislative,  judicial,  and  execu- 
tive departments. 

Who  shall  take  the  initiative  in  the  movement  for 
world  organization?  Men  of  all  degrees  of  intelligence 
and  capacity  for  organic  action  people  this  round  world, 
most  of  them,  however,  out  of  touch  with  other  men 
outside  of  a  limited  circle,  comparatively  few  of  them 
accustomed  to  self-government  under  their  political 
system.  The  initiative  would  come  most  readily  from  a 
.  people  with  experience  in  self-government,  with  capacity 
for  organization,  with  some  race  or  national  conception 
of  the  unity  of  mankind  and  of  the  subordinate  place 
of  the  nation  in  the  world  organism.  It  might  come 
from  a  people  acting  through  a  limited  monarchy  whose 
legislative  branch  spoke  the  will  of  the  most  intelligent 
and  controlling  portion  of  the  people,  or  whose  sover- 
eign acted  in  obedience  to  popular  desire.    Possibly  it 


NATIONAL  SOVEUEKJNTY  NOT  ABSOLUTE        19 

might  come  from  an  absolute  sovereign  who  was  per- 
sonally sufficiently  progressive  and  courageous  to  take 
the  initial  step.  But  the  fittest  place  for  the  initiative 
is  in  the  greatest  republic  of  the  world.  The  United 
States  is  the  fittest  and  most  likely  place  in  which  a 
proposition  for  world  organization  in  practical  form  could 
originate.  We  have  constant  experience  with  the  com- 
plete sovereignty  of  the  states  in  some  fields  of  action, 
joined  with  national  sovereignty  in  others.  We  are  not 
yet  an  empire;  the  genius  of  our  institutions  forbids  it. 
Instinctively  we  act  constantly  upon  the  correct  princi- 
ple that  local  justice  is  best  secured  through  local  sov- 
ereignty, while  in  matters  of  national  concern,  national 
authoi'ity,  acting  through  a  national  executive  enforcing 
laws  passed  by  national  representatives  elected  locally, 
is  best  for  the  security  of  justice  and  progress. 


CHAPTER    III 
THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION 

Inherent  in  mankind  as  a  body  of  persons  with  rela- 
tions to  each  other  are  the  principles  which  make  for 
justice  in  those  relations^  There  are  principles  govern- 
ing service  by  men  to  men  and  by  mankind  to  mankind. 
These  relations  were  not  made  by  men  and  they  are 
beyond  the  control  of  men.  But  the  proposition  here  is 
that  there  is  coming  the  organization  of  the  world  as  a 
single  political  body;  and  the  union  of  mankind  into 
one  political  body  implies  a  constitution. 

The  formation  of  the  world  constitution  has  actually 
begun  and  it  is  wonderful  to  see  how  far  it  has  advanced. 
The  demonstration  is  strong  when  the  facts  already 
established  by  international  action  are  put  together  and 
interpreted. 

Different  things  may  be  meant  by  the  word  "  consti- 
tution" when  applied  to  a  nation..  Fundamentally,  there 
are  the  inherent  rights  and  relations  of  the  people,  which 
may  be  termed  the  constitution  given  by  nature.  An 
individual  may  supply  an  illustration.  A  man's  consti- 
tution is  the  organic  total  of  the  mechanical,  chemical, 
vital,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  principles  which  enter 
into  his  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  structure. 
So  a  nation's  constitution  consists  of  the  organic  total 
of  the  powers  and  rights  of  the  people.    Similarly,  all 

20 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  21 

the  people  of  the  world  stand  in  some  sort  of  relation  to 
each  other.  They  have  their  rights  as  against  each  other; 
they  have  their  duties  to  each  other,  and  the  organic 
relations  of  all  rights  and  duties  are  the  natural  consti- 
tution of  mankind. 

"  Constitution  "  is  the  word  applied  also  to  the  written 
efforts  to  express  the  natural  constitution.  These  efforts 
are  the  bills  of  rights  of  different  states  and  nations, 
which  in  themselves  do  not  directly  determine  a  form 
of  government.  The  term  "  constitution  "  is  more  pop- 
ularly used  to  express  the  form  of  government  adopted 
to  secure  the  principles  expressed  in  bills  of  rights.  Over 
the  natural  constitution  men  have  no  control  whatever, 
but  must  submit  unconditionally.  The  second  use  of 
"  constitution  "  shows  men's  efforts  to  comprehend  and 
express  the  natural  constitution.  "Constitution"  in 
the  third  sense  is  a  framing  of  means  to  attain  the  rela- 
tions which  the  natural  constitution  determines  and  the 
written  constitution  attempts  to  express. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  natural  constitution  is 
and  must  forever  remain  unwritten.  Other  constitutions 
may  be  written  or  unwritten,  and  may  combine  a  bill  of 
rights  and  a  form  of  government  in  one  document.  A 
bill  of  rights  is  of  more  importance  than  a  f(M-m  of  gov- 
ernment, for  it  implies  a  perception  of  principles  and 
tries  to  give  them  exact  expression.  To  secure  these 
principles  the  constitution  which  is  a  form  of  govern- 
ment is  only  a  means.  Hence  the  significance,  in  the 
case  of  over  u  score  of  the  states  of  our  Union,  of  the 
fact  that  they  have  each  a  bill  of  rights  as  a  part  of  the  con- 
stitution.    To  secure  those  rights  is  the  purpose  of  that 


22  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

part  of  their  constitutions  which  provides  the  form  of 
government,  and  the  form  is  wholly  subordinate  to  the 
purpose.  The  rights  of  the  state  as  a  whole  and  of  the 
peo^jle  personally  as  parts  of  the  whole  are  the  fundamen- 
tal part  of  these  constitutions.  The  form  of  government 
is  conditioned  by  them,  and  the  framework  must  be  so  put 
together  at  every  point  that  the  rights  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  whole  shall  be  secured  at  every  point;  this  will  carry 
with  it  the  rights,  security,  and  prosperity  of  every  part. 
I*ublic  and  private  rights  and  relations  are  both  com- 
prehended in  a  bill,  or  declaration,  of  rights.  For  instance, 
among  the  thirty  articles  in  the  Declaration  of  Rights  in 
the  Massachusetts  constitution  are  the  following  asser- 
tions: that  all  men  are  free  and  equal;  that  religious 
worship  is  a  duty;  that  the  power  of  the  people  is 
sovereign;  that  public  officers  are  accountable  public 
agents ;  that  private  property  must  be  protected ;  that 
the  press  must  be  free ;  that  standing  armies  are  dan- 
gerous to  the  liberties  of  the  people  in  time  of  peace ; 
that  elections  should  be  frequent ;  that  the  right  of  peti- 
tion must  be  preserved ;  that  there  should  be  frequent 
sessions  of  the  legislature  ;  that  soldiers  must  not  be 
quartered  upon  citizens  in  time  of  peace;  that  the 
judiciary  must  be  independent  of  all  political  or  mer- 
cenary influence ;  and  that  each  department  of  the  gov- 
ernment must  be  distinct  and  independent  of  both  the 
others.  That  is,  the  Declaration  of  Rights  concerns 
itself  both  with  the  whole  political  body  and  with  the 
ultimate  particles  of  which  the  whole  is  composed,  rec- 
ognizing rights  and  relations  in  both,  and  preserving 
the  rights  of  both  amid  tlieir  relations. 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  23 

In  the  development  of  government  in  England  and 
in  the  United  States  demands  for  bills  of  rights  have 
been  more  conspicuous  than  struggles  over  forms  of 
government.  This  shows  how  the  sense  of  the  people 
has  seen  the  truth  that  the  natural  constitution  is 
supreme  over  all  human  documents  or  schemes,  and 
tliat  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  peoples  should 
have  a  right  understanding  of  the  natural  constitution. 
Passing  down  English  history  from  the  charter  given 
by  Henry  I  at  his  coronation  in  1101  to  the  Magna 
Charta  of  John  in  1215,  the  "  Confirmatio  Chartarum  " 
of  Edward  I  in  1297,  the  legal  forms  and  jury  trials  of 
Henry  VI  in  1429,  the  Petition  of  Right  under  Charles  I 
in  1628,  the  Agreement  of  the  People  in  1619,  the 
Instrument  of  Government  in  1653,  the  Habeas  Corpus 
act  in  1679,  and  the  great  Bill  of  Rights  in  1689,  it  is 
seen  that  nearly  every  one  of  these  vital  steps  toward 
liberty  for  the  people  concerns  rights  and  relations,  not 
forms  of  government.  Given  the  right  principle  in  the 
relations  of  the  people  and  the  upper  classes  and  tlieir 
sovereign,  it  seems  to  have  been  assumed  that  the  form 
of  government  would  shape  itself  to  the  desired  end. 

In  the  United  States,  though  nominally  there  is  no 
national  bill  of  rights,  yet  really  there  is  one.  Tlie 
Declaration  of  Independence  has  a  passage  which 
expresses  truly,  broadly,  and  grandly  rights  and  rela- 
tions whicli  go  to  the  very  heart  of  the  form  of  govern- 
ment.   It  says : 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  —  That  all  men  are 
created  equal  ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain unalienable  rights ;  tliat  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  hapjiiness.. 


24  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

There  is  the  true  spirit  and  a  true  form,  brief  though 
it  be,  of  a  genuine  bill  of  rights. 

At  the  end  of  the  Declaration  is  a  further  passage 
which  belongs  in  the  same  class : 

that  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free 
and  independent  states;  .  .  .  and  that  as  free  and  independent 
states,  they  have  full  power  to  levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract 
alliances,  establish  commerce,  and  do  all  other  acts  and  things 
which  independent  states  may  of  right  do. 

When  we  come  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  a  few  years  later,  though  it  seems 
to  be  occupied  with  the  form  of  government,  yet  we 
find  in  the  preamble  a  recognition  of  the  natural  con- 
stitution of  the  nation,  made  by  the  Creator,  and  also 
in  the  preamble  the  spirit  of  a  bill  of  rights : 

We,  the  People  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more 
perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insm-e  domestic  tranquility,  pro- 
vide for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do 
ordain  and  establisli  this  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

Justice,  unity,  and  organic  relations  are  all  asserted 
in  these  words. 

So  we  find  on  the  part  of  the  people  a  recognition  of 
the  natural  constitution.  Efforts  to  approximate  to  it 
have  been  made  in  bills  of  rights.  It  appears  in  the 
formal  constitution,  or  form  of  government,  whose  pur- 
pose was  to  secure  the  rights  and  to  maintain  the  rela- 
tions asserted  in  the  bills  of  rights.  Englishman  and 
American  alike  have  shown  this  appreciation  of  the 
natural  constitution.    England's  constitution  is  said  to 


THE  A\()HLI)  CONSTITUTION  25 

be  unwritten.  Yet  the  list  given  above  of  documents 
declaratory  of  rights  and  relations  of  the  people  shows 
that  it  is  only  the  subordinate  portion  —  the  form  of 
government  —  that  is  not  put  into  the  form  of  enact- 
ment by  the  popular  will.  The  bills  of  rights  of  Eng- 
land are  written,  and  they  were  secured  only  by  terrible 
conflicts, — by  the  blood  of  martyrs  for  truth  and  country, 
who  represented  the  mass  of  the  people  against  the  few. 
The  form  of  government  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  written.  Its  bill  of  rights  is  short,  com- 
pared with  the  written  forms  of  P^ngland.  But  both  of 
tliese  countries,  notwithstanding  this  diversity  of  prac- 
tice, have  moved  toward  a  single  goal,  —  the  security 
of  the  rights  of  every  person  in  the  nation,  rich  or  poor, 
white  or  black. 

Having  seen  by  these  illustrations  the  nature  of  con- 
stitutions and  the  different  things  meant  by  the  same 
word,  we  now  return  to  the  world  constitution.  Though 
the  world  constitution  is  unwritten,  and  must  always 
remain  so,  yet  it  has  been  recognized  by  the  world.  This 
has  been  done  specifically  by  civilized  nations.  It  will 
surprise  those  who  regard  all  ideas  of  world  organiza- 
tion as  Utopian  to  see  how  far  the  world  has  already 
traveled  along  this  road  toward  a  recognized  world  body 
politic. 

To  make  this  clear  beyond  dispute,  we  need  first  to 
see  just  what  is  meant  by  international  law  and  by 
world  constitution.  International  law  is  fitly  named. 
It  is  law.  It  is  not  constitution.  It  is  an  expression 
of  the  intelligence  and  will  of  the  nations  upon  certain 
subiects.    The  world  constitution   is  the   unicm  of  the 


26  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

principles  which  determine  the  relations  of  the  nations. 
Thus  far  the  body  of  international  law  relates  largely 
to  the  practices  of  nations  in  war.  In  a  state  or  nation 
law  implies  and  reveals  a  constitution,  written  or 
unwritten,  back  of  it  and  determining  its  form ;  and 
in  the  same  way  international  law  implies  and  reveals 
the  world  constitution  which  lies  back  of  such  law 
and  determines  its  form. 

Though  no  nation  has  ever  said  a  word  about  a 
world  constitution,  and  J^iiough  the  very  idea  may  not 
have  been  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  given  form 
to  statements  of  international  law,  yet  the  existence  of 
that  constitution  is  implied  and  revealed  in  the  inter- 
national law  regarding  practices  in  war.  What  is  the 
chief  burden  of  international  law?  It  is  that  savage 
practices,  that  needless  slaughter,  that  violations  of 
humanity  beyond  certain  limits  must  cease.  This  is 
the  law  of  nations.  But  it  depends  upon  the  nature, 
the  rights,  and  the  relations  of  men.  It  reveals  the  true 
natural  constitution  upon  which  all  mankind  is  organ- 
ized. Here,  then,  standing  in  the  clear  light  of  inter- 
national law,  asserted  by  all  civilized  nations,  stands 
Article  I  of  the  world  constitution.  To  put  it  in  words, 
we  may  frame  it  thus  : 

Article  I.  All  men  are  kindred;  tlierefore  nations  must  be 
humane. 

The  international  law  which  is  based  upon  this  prin- 
ciple illustrates,  sharply  and  sadly,  the  contradictions 
and  perversities  in  those  who  make  the  law  based  upon 
such  a  fraternal  article.    International  law,  affirming  the 


THE  WOULD  CONSTITUTION  27 

kinship  of  mankind,  says  practically  this :  "  Provided 
men  are  not  too  savage,  all  manner  of  robbery,  injus- 
tice, and  slaughter  may  be  perpetrated."  In  order  to 
formulate  rules  about  killing  one  another,  the  nations 
have  based  their  international  law  upon  recognition  of 
the  universal  brotherhood  of  man.  Having  asserted  that 
fundamental  position,  they  impose  limitations  upon  tlie 
slaughter,  but  by  no  means  try  to  prevent  it.  National 
rights  may  be  invaded,  impaired,  or  completely  destroyed ; 
national  existence  may  be  ended  by  force  of  arms  amid 
fire  and  rapine  and  horrible  death  ;  innocent  people  may 
be  shot  by  the  most  diabolical  inventions  which  modern 
ingenuity  can  devise,  or  butchered  by  cold  steel  with- 
out mercy,  —  provided  only  that  a  certain  boundary  is 
not  passed  which  the  common  conscience  of  mankind  has 
recognized  as  expressed  in  this  first  article  of  the  world 
constitution.  So  the  great  world  brute,  on  its  upward 
development  from  brutality  to  spirituality,  with  its  eyes 
bleared  with  sin  and  crime  against  what  is  the  most 
fundamental  truth  of  its  very  being,  has  seen  and  recog- 
nized, and  has  proclaimed  so  that  it  stands  evident  to 
all  the  world  the  sublime  reality :  "  All  men  are  kin- 
dred." Conscience-stricken,  it  issues  the  command : 
"  Therefore  nations  must  be  humane." 

This  article  is  unwritten.  So  is  the  form  of  govern- 
ment of  England.  But  the  fact  that  England  has  no 
form  of  government  ever  adopted  as  such  by  the  people 
by  one  act  does  not  necessitate  the  conclusion  that  Eng- 
land has  no  form  of  government  at  all.  Neither  does 
the  fact  that  this  article  of  tlie  world  constitution  has 
not  been  adopted  formally  weigh  at  all  against  the  truth 


28  WOULD  ORGANIZATION 

that,  by  the  general  recognition  of  international  law, 
there  is  necessitated  the  establishment  of  this  principle 
of  humanity  and  kinship  as  the  basis  whereon  it  rests. 

Directly  in  line  with  international  law,  recognizing 
the  kinship  of  all  mankind  and  commanding  the  nations 
to  be  humane  in  their  barbarities,  is  the  action  of  the 
Geneva  Congress  of  1864,  which  established  the  Inter- 
national Red  Cross  Society.  But,  further  and  stronger 
than  this,  as  an  expression  of  the  judgment  and  will  of 
the  nations,  is  the  action  of  the  Congress  of  St.  Peters- 
burg in  1868,  which  condemned  the  use  of  especially 
barbarous  bullets,  followed  by  the  Congress  of  Brussels 
in  1874  with  a  restatement  of  the  laws  of  war  and  a 
further  affirmation  of  the  spirit  of  humanity.  By  their 
acceptance  of  the  world  legislation  which  was  accom- 
plished in  1874,  the  nations  have  formally  approved  it; 
and  tliat  legislation  is  a  distinct  revelation  and  affirma- 
tion of  this  so-called  Article  I  of  the  world  constitution. 

But  the  nations  of  the  civilized  world  have  tacitly 
recognized  more  than  one  article  of  the  world  consti- 
tution. Other  world  legislation  than  the  general  body 
of  international  law  has  been  enacted.  Repeatedly  the 
nations  have  met  in  formal  deliberations,  have  agreed 
upon  conclusions,  have  accepted  those  conclusions,  and 
have  declared  that  they  would  enforce  them.  They 
have  established  the  Universal  Postal  Union.  This 
includes  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  It  holds  to  one 
agreement  the  largest  combination  of  different  peoples 
and  governments  which  has  ever  been  formed.  Formal 
action  has  been  taken  upon  a  specific  matter  which  has 
been  reduced  to  writing.    Now  the  establishment  of  this 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  29 

Union  by  formal  agreement  of  uU  tlie  nations  is  an  act 
of  world  legislation.  It  declares  the  will  of  mankind. 
Being  a  law  of  the  world,  it  postulates  a  principle 
which  is  a  part  of  the  world  constitution.  That  prin- 
ciple —  a  recognition  of  relations  —  joined  with  the 
accompanying  obligation  involved  stands  clear  in  the 
light  of  the  law ;  and  so  we  get  what  we  may  properly 
call  a  second  article  in  the  world  constitution : 

Article  II.  All  men  are  social ;  therefore  intercommunication 
must  be  universal,  reliable,  and  inexpensive. 

This  declaration,  in  effect,  is  necessary  as  a  basis  of 
the  establishment  of  the  Universal  Postal  Union ;  and 
since  practically  all  mankind  is  embraced  in  the  Union, 
all  the  world  agrees  to  this  statement  of  principle. 

But  there  are  other  illustrations  of  the  recognition 
of  the  world  constitution  by  action  of  the  nations.  In 
1875  there  met  in  Paris  the  Metrical  Diplomatic  Con- 
gress. It  prepared  the  international  metric  convention 
and  provided  for  a  meeting  at  Paris  at  least  every  six 
years  of  a  general  conference  on  weights  and  measures. 
Here  is  a  precedent  for  the  proposed  world  legislature. 
The  difference  is  that  the  latter  proposition  includes  all 
matters  of  world  interest,  while  the  former  includes  only 
the  subject  of  weights  and  measures.  Now  this  action 
in  1875  was  based  upon  recognition  of  something  in 
mankind  beyond  what  was  recognized  by  tlie  establish- 
ment of  the  Universal  Postal  Union.  Nations  all  around 
the  world  must  trade  with  each  othei-,  and  it  is  a  hin- 
drance to  trade  if  the  operation  of  weights  and  measures, 
whose  function  it  is  to  determine  quantities  of  goods, 


30  WORLD  ORCxANIZATION 

is  obstructed  by  a  confusion  of  standards.  Here,  then,  in 
the  international  agreement  regarding  a  common  stand- 
ard of  weights  and  measures,  the  nations  have  promul- 
gated a  new  law  which  rests  upon  the  recognition  of 
still  another  principle  in  the  bill  of  rights  of  mankind ; 
and  this  principle  may  be  formulated  as  another  article 
in  the  world  constitution ; 

Article  III.  Each  part  of  the  world  needs  all  the  other  parts ; 
unimijeded  exchange  of  the  world's  goods  promotes  world  pros- 
perity; therefore  obstacles^o  such  exchange  must  be  removed. 

Mankind  being  one  and  being  organized,  at  least  to 
some  extent,  the  needs  of  the  several  organs  for  nutri- 
ment and  strength  should  be  satisfied  in  the  quickest 
and  least  expensive  way.  If  within  the  human  body 
free  circulation  of  the  elements  of  food  to  the  parts  where 
they  are  most  needed  promotes  most  the  health  of  the 
body,  and  if  it  would  injure  the  general  health  and 
weaken  every  part  in  detail  to  impede  that  circulation, 
then,  by  a  like  law,  it  promotes  the  health  of  the  world 
organism  of  mankind  to  establish  free  circulation  of 
supplies  to  every  part,  and  it  injures  the  general  health 
and  weakens  every  part  in  detail  to  impede  that  circu- 
lation. The  use  of  common  weights  and  measures  pro- 
motes trade,  and  the  vitality  of  the  idea  of  a  world  money 
illustrates  the  strength  and  the  persistence  of  the  demand 
for  all  possible  facilities  of  trade.  It  foreshadows  the 
success  of  the  efforts  to  relieve  trade  of  all  removable 
restrictions. 

But  there  has  been  recognized,  tacitly,  it  is  true,  still 
another  principle  in  the  world  constitution.    In   1885 


THE  WOULD  CONSTITUTION  31 

there  was  held  in  Washington,  D.C,  at  the  invitation  of 
the  United  States,  the  International  Prime  Meridian 
Conference.  Twenty-six  nations  were  represented,  and 
this  large  group,  including  the  controlling  nations  of  the 
civilized  world,  adopted  the  meridian  of  Greenwich  as 
their  standard  meridian.  Individual  national  standards 
were  set  aside,  and  the  nations  did  not  compromise  by 
taking  some  new  meridian  hitherto  unused  by  any  nation, 
but  they  adopted  the  standard  of  England.  B}^  this 
action,  which  was  another  instance  of  world  legislation, 
the  nations  recognized  still  another  principle  in  the 
world  bill  of  rights.  It  may  be  put  into  the  form  of 
words  as  follows : 

Article  IV.  Mankind  advances  most  rapidly  by  cooperation; 
therefore  national  pride  and  prejudice  must  be  discarded  in  order 
that  nations  may  work  together. 

There  was  held  at  Washington  in  1889  the  Marine 
Conference,  which  is  said  to  have  resulted  in  more  quasi 
legislation  than  any  previous  world  conference.  This 
quasi  legislation  related  to  the  rules  of  the  sea,  —  the 
establishment  and  regulation  of  practices  of  navigation 
by  vessels  under  the  flags  of  different  countries.  Its 
broad  purpose  was  the  development  of  commerce  and  the 
protection  of  property  and  life.  This  quasi  legislation 
involved  still  further  recognition  of  the  rights  and 
relations  of  men  as  contained  in  the  bill  of  rights  of 
the  world  constitution.  It  is  vital,  for  it  goes  to  the 
very  root  of  the  existence  of  mankind  as  one.  Recog- 
nizing the  obligation  which  goes  with  the  rights  and 
relations,  and  putting  the  truth  into  words,  we  state  as 


32  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

follows  this  hitherto  unwritten  principle  which  is  back 
of  the  international  law  formulated  by  the  conference : 

Article  V.  World  movements  must  be  regulated  by  "^orld 
intelligence ;  therefore  the  will  of  the  people  must  be  supreme 
over  all  the  parts. 

By  the  very  establishment  of  world  law  for  the  control 
"~of  commerce  the  supremacy  of  the  whole  for  the  good 
of  the  whole  is  plainly  and  powerfully  asserted. 

In  1890  the  Brussels  Antislavery  Conference,  repre- 
senting the  civilized^  world  more  or  less  completely, 
agreed  upon  measures  to  suppress  the  African  slave 
trade.  This  was  an  enactment  of  world  law  by  world 
representatives  (taking  them  as  a  whole)  to  the  effect 
that  slave  trading  must  stop.  Again  a  further  principle 
of  the  bill  of  rights  of  the  world  constitution  was  recog- 
nized as  the  basis  of  this  new  law  of  the  world.  With 
the  obligation  it  carries  with  it  the  written  form  may  be 
put  as  follows  : 

Article  VI.  Every  part  of  mankind  is  of  right  entitled  to  free- 
dom ;  therefore  every  power  which  attempts  to  enslave  men  must 
be  destroyed. 

In  1892  and  1893  respectively  occurred  the  Inter- 
national Sanitary  Conferences  at  Venice  and  Dresden, 
attended  severally  by  delegates  of  fifteen  and  nineteen 
nations.  Here  was  a  wholly  new  subject  of  world  legis- 
lation, and  certain  lines  of  action  were  agreed  upon  by 
the  nations  represented.  Certain  things  must  be  done 
for  the  health  of  the  world.  Back  of  this  agreement  of 
the  nations  upon  a  new  decree  of  international  law, 
therefore,  stands  another  article  of  the  world  bill  of 


THE  WORLD  COA'STITUTION  33 

rights.    With    the    obligation    it    carried    with    it   we 
frame  it  thus  : 

Article  VIT.  The  illness  of  one  is  the  peril  of  all;  therefore  all 
must  be  vigilant  for  tho  health  of  each  and  of  all. 

In  1899  occurred  the  Hague  Peace  Conference, 
resulting  in  the  establishment  of  the  Hague  Court  of 
Arbitration.  Higher  in  rank  than  some  of  the  con- 
gresses already  mentioned  and  of  great  and  lasting 
importance  in  the  history  of  the  world,  this  conference 
is  worthy  of  mention  in  some  detail.  In  the  first  place, 
the  last  sentence  of  the  Czar's  first  circular,  issued  by 
Count  Muravieff,  the  Russian  minister  of  foreign 
affairs,  recognized  the  true  bill  of  rights  of  the  world 
constitution,  for  it  used  the  words  :  "  the  principles  of 
equity  and  right  on  which  rest  the  security  of  states 
and  the  welfare  of  peoples."  This  recognition  the  con- 
ference made  its  own  by  incorporating  the  words  into 
the  preamble  of  the  immortal  agreement.  Further  rec- 
ognition was  made  in  the  preamble  by  the  adoption  of 
the  clause  which  reads :  ^  recognizing  the  solidarity 
which  unites  the  members  of  the  society  of  civilized 
nations."  Article  I  of  the  convention  contains,  for  our 
purpose,  the  substance  of  the  whole.    It  reads : 

With  a  view  to  ol)viating,  as  far  as  possible,  recourses  to  force 
in  the  relations  between  states,  the  Signatory  Powers  agree  to  use 
tlieir  best  efforts  to  insure  the  pacific  settlement  of  international 
differences. 

The  establishment  of  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration 
was  an  act  of  world  legislation  of  supreme  importance. 


34  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Like  every  other  instance  of  true  legislation,  it  rests 
upon  a  principle.  This  world  legislation  discloses  an- 
other principle  of  the  bill  of  rights  of  the  world 
constitution,  recognized  and  affirmed  by  all  the  civilized 
nations  when  they  signed  the  Hague  agreement,  —  yes, 
even  by  those  which  are  armed  to  the  teeth,  ready  to 
fly  at  each  other's  throats  upon  provocation.  Sublime 
amid  arms,  peaceful  amid  portents  of  war,  true  in  the 
midst  of  doubters,  faitliful  amid  the  sneers  of  fighting 
men,  it  rises,  a  monument  for  all  time: 

Article  VIII.  jNIankind  is  intellectual  and  moral,  not  material 
and  brutal;  therefore  differences  between  nations  must  be  settled 
by  reason  and  right,  not  by  force. 

With  this  great  affirmation  of  the  sober  judgment  and 
solemn  purpose  of  the  civilized  world,  we  end  this  review 
of  articles  of  the  world  bill  of  rights  already  established, 
noting  the  gratifying  fact  that  the  United  States  has 
been  the  pioneer  in  making  this  affirmation  of  vital 
force  among  the  nations.  Other  congresses  and  the 
pan-American  conferences  are  not  of  sufficient  rank 
for  mention  here. 

Now  where  is  the  room  for  skepticism  regarding  the 
actual  development  of  the  constitution  of  the  world 
body  politic?  The  facts  are  sufficient  demonstration, 
and  the  frequency  of  the  dates  in  recent  years  shows 
how  rapid  is  the  momentum  the  movement  has  already 
acquired,  even  while  most  men  deny  that  ife  exists,  and 
while  many  who  believe  in  the  formal  organization  of 
the  world  say  that  the  times  are  now  inopportune 
and  that  it  will  be  a  hundred  years  before  the  idea 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  35 

is  realized.  To  every  skeptic  the  suf'licient  answer  is, 
"  Look  and  see." 

But  the  case  is  much  stronger  yet.  Look  further. 
Take  up  the  part  of  the  constitution  which  follows  the 
bill  of  rights,  —  the  form  of  government.  The  skeptic 
is  answered  here  as  completely  as  in  the  case  of  the  bill 
of  rights.  Every  government  must  exercise  the  three 
functions  of  legislation,  judicial  determination,  and  exe- 
cution of  the  legislation.  The  logical  development  of 
the  three  is  in  that  order.  There  must  be  an  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  government,  a  determination  whether 
the  will  applies  to  the  case,  and  the  carrying  out  of  the 
will  if  it  does  apply. 

World  legislatures  have  sat  repeatedly.  World  legis- 
lation has  been  enacted  repeatedly.  It  is  in  force  in  the 
civilized  world  to-day.  Peculiarities  which  distinguish 
it  from  national  legislation  are  these :  that  world  legis- 
lation is  the  enactment  of  bodies  called  to  legislate  upon 
one  subject  alone  ;  that  there  has  been  no  established 
basis  of  representation  or  mode  of  procedure  as  world 
precedents ;  that  the  nations  severally  have  claimed  or 
have  been  conceded  a  right  of  veto  upon  the  enactment ; 
and  that  the  application  and  enforcement  of  this  Avorld 
law  have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  nations  which  have 
agreed  to  the  legislation.  But  the  essence  of  legislation 
is  there,  —  the  expression  of  judgment  by  the  delegates 
and  the  consent  of  the  will  of  the  ratifying  nations. 
Sufficient  illustration  is  given  in  the  case  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  th'^  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration  and  the 
other  agreements  mentioned  above,  the  agreements  hav- 
ing bmding  force   and  therefore  being  a   self-imposed 


36  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

law.  Therefore  Article  I  of  the  form  of  government  of 
the  world  constitution  has  already  been  established  by 
the  civilized  world.    It  stands  as  follows : 

Article  I.    There  shall  be  a  legislative  department. 

Elaboration  of  sections  under  this  article  remains  to 
\ye  made,  —  the  establishment  of  times  and  places  of 
meeting,  the  basis  of  representation,  the  rules  of  pro- 
cedure, the  determination  of  the  validity  of  the  enact- 
ments, and  other  details  But  w^orld  legislation  as  an 
accomplished  fact  began  long  ago,  and  the  facts  are  a 
conclusive  answer  to  all  who  doubt. 

How  about  the  world  judiciary?  The  Hague  Court 
of  Arbitration  is  solely  for  the  settlement  of  differences 
between  nations.  The  language  of  the  convention  seems 
to  imply  that  only  two  nations  will  be  parties  to  one 
proceeding.  At  any  rate,  the  proceedings  presuppose 
differences  between  nations,  and  the  convention  has  no 
reference  to  a  general  body  of  law  to  be  applied  to  all 
nations.  But,  as  far  as  the  convention  goes,  it  relates 
to  judicial  procedure,  —  to  an  appeal  to  reason  rather 
than  to  force  for  a  determination  of  rights  and  duties 
in  cases  of  differences  between  nations.  It  has  to  do 
with  an  application  to  particular  cases  of  this  will  of  the 
nations,  —  that  national  differences  be  settled  by  reason 
and  right.  The  very  name  of  "court"  and  the  possession 
of  judicial  methods  make  it  probable  that  broader  judicial 
functions  will  be  added.  Here  is  the  germ  of  a  judicial 
department,  something  out  of  which  can  be  evolved, 
as  necessity  requires,  a  world  court  to  pass  upon  the 
application  of  world  law  to  any  or  to  all  nations.    By 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  37 

establishing  this   court  tlie   nations    wrote   the   second 
article  of  the  world  form  of  government. 

Article  II.    There  shall  be  a  judicial  department. 

But  there  is  no  such  office  as  the  world  executive, 
the  doubter  may  say.  True,  there  is  no  world  president 
yet.  It  is  true  that  the  nations  rely  upon  each  other 
severally  to  carry  out  world  legislation.  There  is  neither 
a  world  supreme  court  to  issue  an  injunction  against  a 
nation  disobeying  the  decision  of  the  Hague  Court  of 
Arbitration,  nor  a  world  marshal  to  insist  that  the  dis- 
obedient power  must  obey,  nor  a  world  police  or  world 
army  to  compel  obedience.  Each  nation  is  to-day 
world  executive  for  its  own  territory.  That  is  as  far 
as  the  evolution  has  progressed. 

But  there  is,  notwithstanding,  a  very  evident  germ  of 
a  world  executive.  Boards,  conunissions,  and  bureaus 
are  branches  of  executive  departments.  Officers  of  such 
organizations  are  executive  officers.  Now,  the  Univer- 
sal Postal  Union  has  a  permanent  secretary  with  an 
office  at  Berne,  Switzerland.  That  Union  is  an  execu- 
tive branch  created  by  the  world  legislation  which 
established  it,  as  truly  as  the  Massachusetts  railroad 
commission,  created  by  the  legislature,  is  a  part  of  the 
executive  department  of  the  state.  Right  at  that  point, 
then,  the  office  of  this  secretary  in  Berne,  we  put  the 
finger  and  say,  "  This  permanent  secretary  is  a  true 
world  executive."  It  is  not  necessary  to  begin  with  a 
world  presider.t.  It  is  not  to  the  point  to  say  that  the 
secretary's  duties  may  be  few.  He  is  the  head  of  a  per- 
manent executive  body  established  by  the  will  of  all 


38  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

nations  of  the  world,  —  for  this  Universal  Postal  Union 
is  peculiar  in  having  the  formal  adherence  of  every 
nation  on  earth.  Therefore  the  nations  have  estab- 
lislied  tlie  third  article  of  the  form  of  government  of 
the  world  constitution. 

Article  III.    There  shall  be  an  executive  department. 

This  is  all  accomplished  fact.  The  world  constitution, 
though  unwritten,  is  growing  by  development,  just  as 
the  British  constitution  Jias  grown ;  and  the  essential 
truth  of  history  can  no  more  be  denied  in  the  case  of  the 
world  than  in  the  case  of  England. 

Thus  far  we  have  noted  what  has  actually  been 
accomplished  in  the  development  of  the  world  consti- 
tution. In  the  world  bill  of  rights  we  find  tliat  the 
nations  have  already  asserted  common  kinship,  social 
relations,  organic  unity,  the  supremacy  of  the  good  of 
the  whole  over  the  seeming  good  of  any  part,  the 
supremacy  of  tlie  intelligence  of  the  whole  over  affairs 
which  concern  the  whole,  liberty  common  to  all,  care 
for  the  health  of  the  whole,  and  the  supremacy  of  reason 
over  force. 

Other  points  remain  to  be  established,  some  of  which 
are  already  recognized  in  certain  localities  and  inhere 
equally  in  all  mankind,  some  of  which  have  been  noticed 
above  in  the  Massachusetts  Declaration  of  Rights.  In 
regard  to  the  form  of  government  the  nations  have 
already  established  the  legislative,  the  judicial,  and  the 
executive  departments.  These  three  cover  all  possible 
fields.  It  remains,  therefore,  to  develop  in  detail  the 
organism  of  the   world    body  politic   in  these  several 


THE  WORLD  CONSTITUTION  39 

departments  and  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that 
the  nations  are  moving  forward  to  that  development. 

If  it  were  permitted  to  forecast  the  future  regarding 
the  world  bill  of  rights,  it  might  be  noted  tliat  nowhere 
yet  has  there  been  an  affirmation  of  equality.  It  seems 
to  be  a  safe  prediction  that  the  Republic  of  Mankind 
will  include  in  its  bill  of  rights  words  like  those  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence :  "  We  hold  these  truths 
to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal";  or 
like  those  in  the  Massachusetts  Declaration  of  Rights: 
"  All  men  are  born  free  and  equal." 

Nowhere  yet  lias  there  been  asserted  the  control  of 
the  property  of  the  world  by  all  mankind  for  the  good 
of  the  whole, — a  power  corresponding  to  eminent  domain 
in  nations  and  in  states  of  the  United  States,  a  power 
to  take  private  property  for  the  public  good.  Nor  is 
there  exercised  a  power  to  control  transportation  for  the 
good  of  the  whole.  No  effort  has  been  made  internation- 
ally to  prevent  evasion  of  national  laws  by  combinations 
of  lawbreakers  in  several  countries,  an  evil  which  is 
possible  because  present- international  law  cannot  touch 
such  lawbreakers.  It  seems  reasonable,  then,  to  predict 
that  articles  will  be  added  to  the  world  bill  of  riglits 
somewhat  as  follows : 

World  supplies  are  for  the  world  ;  therefore  world  monopolies 
must  be  prohibited. 

World  transportation  is  for  tlu'  service  of  the  world;  therefore 
the  carrying  business  of  tlie  world  is  subject  to  the  control  of  the 
world. 

Following  the  common  sense  of  the  case  and  basing 
the   prediction  on   practice   common  in  the  nations  of 


40  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Germanic  origin,  it  may  be  said  that  sooner  or  later 

the  world  bill  of  rights  will  contain  an  article  of  this 

tenor : 

Eacli  locality  has  its  rights  against  and  its  duties  to  the 
whole;  therefore  local  self-government  and  centralized  power 
must  everywhere  be  justly  respected. 

So,  one  after  another,  there  will  be  added  to  the  world 
bill  of  rights  afhrmations  of  relations  and  duties,  until 
a  declaration  is  made  which,  with  the  world  laws  based 
upon  it,  will  secure  the  ^subservience  of  every  part  of 
mankind  to  the  good  of  the  whole  and  guarantee  to 
every  part  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness," 
protected  by  the  power  of  the  whole. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  WORLD  LEGISLATURE 

Before  the  world  had  eflicient  communication  between 
its  parts  it  could  have  no  intelligence  or  opinion  of  its 
own  as  a  whole.  Until  it  gets  some  means  of  express- 
ing its  intelligence  and  will,  it  will  remain  silent 
even  if  the  intelligence  and  will  exist.  But  conditions 
have  been  established  whereby  both  world  intelligence 
and  world  will  upon  some  matters  have  already  been 
developed  and  expressed,  and  they  are  coming  to  include 
a  wider  range  of  subjects.  Achievements  of  trade  and 
travel,  of  printing  and  reading,  and  of  research  and  in- 
vention enable  each  part  of  the  world  to  know  so  much 
of  what  the  other  parts  are  thinking  and  what  they  are 
doing,  that  the  essential  preliminary  work  for  world 
organization  is  already  well  advanced,  but  without  con- 
certed action  and  by  impulse  of  blind  forces. 

Now  a  more  intelligent  and  concerted  action  is  neces- 
sary. An  organ  whereby  the  world  opinion  can  manifest 
itself  is  becoming  imperative.  Yet  that  opinion  has 
already  asserted  itself  repeatedly,  and  what  has  been 
done  points  clearly  the  way  to  what  remains  to  be  done. 
In  the  organization  of  the  woi-ld  an  organ  for  express- 
ing the  intelliofence  and  will  of  the  world  is  the  first 
necessity  of  the  three  which  are  needed  for  complete 
organization. 

41 


42  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

This  organ  may  rightly  be  named  the  world  legis- 
lature even  though  it  may  be  many  years  before  it 
reaches  full  development.  Practically  the  same  word 
in  different  languages  (for  its  Latin  origin  makes  it 
common  to  a  large  circle)  expresses  the  real  thing,  a 
legislative  body  ;  whereas  other  jiames,  such  as  "  parlia- 
ment "  or  "  congress,"  are  used  for  widely  different 
things  and  do  not  have  such  j)recise  significance. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  according  to  the  law  of 
evolution,  the  world  legislature  is  the  first  world  organ 
to  be  developed.  It  is  already  needed.  World-legislative 
functions  have  already  been  exercised  by  the  civilized 
and  semi-civilized  nations,  as  will  be  shown  hereafter, 
and  now  the  time  is  ripe  for  direct  effort  for  the 
development  of  a  truly  legislative  body  for  the  service 
of  all  the  nations. 

In  order  to  make  the  idea  seem  more  natural  and 
feasible,  especially  for  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
they  may  well  look  first  at  their  own  political  history. 
Before  the  adoption  of  the  present  constitution  of  the 
United  States  each  of  the  colonies  was  a  sovereign 
state.  It  could  come  into  the  Union,  or  it  could  remain 
out,  as  its  people  determined.  No  other  state  had  a  right 
to  compel  any  one  to  join.  All  but  one  had  no  right  to 
compel  that  one.  But  they  all  accepted  the  constitu- 
tion ;  new  states  have  been  admitted  ;  and  the  civil  war 
has  settled  it  for  all  tim.e  that  each  state  is  organically 
a  living  part  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a 
political  body  and  that  no  state  has  a  right  to  secede. 

The  real  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of 
every  other  nation  will  always  remain  unwritten,  in  the 


THE  WOULD  LEGISLATURE  43 

very  nature  of  the  case.  But  the  people  will  approxi- 
mate to  it  as  they  learn  more  of  the  ways  of  securing 
liberty  and  justice  to  the  several  parts  consistently 
with  the  peace  and  progress  of  the  whole.  But,  as  the 
unwritten  constitution  of  the  United  States  forced  the 
states  into  a  formal  Union,  so  the  unwritten  constitu- 
tion of  all  the  nations  of  the  world  taken  as  a  whole  is 
forcing  them  into  formal  union,  and  the  consummation 
is  as  sure  to  be  reached  in  the  case  of  the  world  as  it 
has  been  reached  in  the  case  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  especially  fitting  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  should  take  the  lead  in  this  movement  to  organ- 
ize the  world.  The  greatest  nation  having  a  govern- 
ment by  the  people,  with  the  longest  experience  on 
such  a  scale  and  with  the  largest  success,  is  best  fitted 
to  lead  others.  We  have  the  form  of  government  which 
foreshadows  the  form  of  world  government  which  will 
exist  when  all  mankind  are  brought  into  organic  polit- 
ical connection.  Theoretically  our  states  are  sover- 
eign. All  rights  are  reserved  to  them  which  are  not 
formally  surrendered,  by  the  adoption  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  to  the  central  government. 
In  like  manner,  in  matters  of  world  legislation,  the 
nations  individually  would  be  expected  to  surrender  to 
the  nations  collectively,  in  passing  upon  propositions 
from  the  world  legislature,  only  such  jurisdiction  as  they 
should  voluntarily  yield  ;  for  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  a  major  part  of  the  physical  power  of  the  nations 
would  force  upon  a  minor  part  such  regulations  as  might 
be  approved  by  a  majority  of  the  representatives  sitting 


44  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

in  the  world  legislature.  Settlement  of  the  right  of  seces- 
sion and  questions  involving  the  inherent  rights  of  the 
central  government  would  lie  far  in  the  future  until  the 
rightfulness  and  scope  of  tlie  organic  law  of  mankind 
were  determined  more  exactly  than  would  be  possible 
for  a  long  time  after  the  first  session  of  the  world's 
representatives.  The  organic  unity  of  the  world  would 
develop  slowly  and  under  unwritten  principles,  as  the 
British  constitution  has  developed. 

World  legislation  hq^  occurred  repeatedly,  though  no 
world  legislature  has  been  organized.  This  action  has 
been  possible  only  by  special  meetings  for  special  pur- 
poses. The  essence  of  world  legislation  is  the  consent 
of  the  nations  to  a  particular  course  of  action.  That  is, 
the  will  of  the  world  decrees  that  a  certain  thing  shall 
be  done.  When  all  nations  ao-ree  we  have  absolute 
world  action.  When  fewer  than  all  agree  we  have 
action  of  the  same  kind  but  less  in  degree.  In  tlie 
case  of  the  International  Postal  Union  we  have  absolute 
world  legislation.  All  civilized  nations  of  the  world  are 
in  formal  agreement  upon  the  propositions  involved  in 
the  international  transmission  of  mails.  The  world  will 
has  taken  specific  expression,,  and  that  will  is  carried 
into  execution  in  that  field  of  action. 

That  is  the  most  conspicuous  and  most  successful 
illustration  of  world  legislation,  because  it  embraces 
organized  mankind  and  is  so  eminently  successful.  Pro- 
vision for  stated  meetinofs  of  the  International  Postal 
Congress  at  Berne  every  seven  years  for  such  action  as 
may  be  necessary  to  improve  or  maintain  the  system 
makes  the  illustration  complete  for  our  purpose. 


TIIK   WOIUJ)   LKCISLATURE  45 

But  many  otlier  instances  have  occurred  in  which 
more  than  two  nations  have  been  parties  to  an  agreement 
regarding  some  particular  matter.  Largest  in  world  im- 
portance has  been  the  agreement  of  the  principal  nations 
of  the  world,  and  some  of  the  smaller  ones,  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration.  Though 
legislation  is  not  the  object  of  that  court,  yet  the  act 
of  establishing  the  court  was  in  itself  an  act  of  world 
legislation,  as  far  as  the  signatory  nations  were  con- 
cerned, of  the  largest  benefit  to  mankind. 

Mention  may  be  made  of  the  International  Conference 
in  Washington  in  1885  for  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
mon  prime  meridian,  at  which  twenty-six  nations  were 
represented.  At  the  International  Sanitary  Conference 
in  Vienna  in  1802  fifteen  nations  were  represented.  At 
the  Dresden  International  Sanitary  Conference  in  1893 
nineteen  nations  were  represented.  Our  pan-American 
conferences,  at  which  groups  of  nations  have  been  rep- 
resented, illustrate  further  what  has  already  been  done 
by  way  of  reaching  an  expression  of  international  will 
upon  particular  matters,  though  in  no  case  has  a  propo- 
sition for  a  general  international  legislative  body  for 
promiscuous  business  been  presented.  But  the  point  is 
sufficiently  established  for  the  assurance  of  the  con- 
servative that  international  or  world  legislation  has 
occurred  repeatedly.  What  is  proposed  now  is  not  a 
new  departure,  but  the  establishment  in  permanent 
form  of  a  means  of  expressing  the  will  of  the  nations, 
instead  of  the  present  imperfect  means  of  calling 
special  meetings  with  power  to  consider  only  special 
subjects. 


40  AVORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Now  as  to  the  urgency  of  the  case.  Foremost  of  the 
poKtical  questions  of  the  times  is  the  great  and  com- 
plex one,  What  is  to  be  done  to  regulate  or  control 
the  vast  aggregations  of  capital  which  are  exercising 
unscrupulously  their  enormous  powers  as  monopolies 
and  taking  extortionate  sums  from  consumers  in  return 
for  their  products?  All  the  world  is  now  laid  under 
tribute.  At  present  the  world  lies  helpless  because  it  is 
disorganized.  In  the  United  States  we  have  barely 
made  a  beginning  in  tlie  solution  of  the  problem.  Most 
advanced  of  all  the  states  and  more  advanced  than 
the  general  government  is  Massachusetts.  President 
Roosevelt  in  his  message  to  Congress  in  1902,  treating 
of  the  problem,  mentioned  the  corporation  laws  of  Mas- 
sachusetts as  the  most  advanced  means  yet  proposed  in 
the  form  of  law.  But  Massachusetts  is  only  a  spot  on 
the  surface  of  tlie  earth.  National  legislation  is  in 
embryo.  Publicity  as  a  remedy  is  the  most  potent  force 
yet  suggested,  and  the  efficacy  of  that  is  disputed  by 
the  chairman  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
in  open  difference  from  President  Roosevelt. 

While  legislation  halts  within  state  and  national 
limits  the  problem  is  world-wide.  Our  interstate  law 
is  a  sorry  success  at  best.  Rut  if  it  were  absolutely 
successful  within  our  boundaries,  yet  it  would  fail 
in  the  case  of  international  commerce.  World  trans- 
portation can  be  controlled  only  by  world  legislation. 
Monopolies  which  defy  national  laws  because  they  are 
world  monopolies  can  be  grappled  with  successfully 
only  by  world  laws.  Already  the  necessity  is  upon  us 
for  world  legislation,  because  business  transactions  now 


THE   WORLD   LEGISLATURE  47 

extend  all  over  the  world  and  no  national  legislature  will 
be  adequate  to  protect  the  people  from  world  monoi)olies. 

Business  necessities,  not  political  theories,  demand 
speedy  action  by  the  world,  just  as  business  necessities 
forced  the  United  States  into  organic  union.  "  What- 
ever we  may  think  of  it  now,"  said  Daniel  Webster, 
"  the  Constitution  had  its  immediate  origin  in  the  con- 
viction of  the  necessity  for  uniformity  or  identity  in 
commercial  regulations." 

Now  though  the  necessity  is  here,  the  means  of  relief 
is  not  here.  World  legislation  can  be  secured  only  as 
the  nations  are  educated  both  to  tlie  necessity  of  it 
and  to  the  means  of  securing  it.  But  governments  of 
most  of  the  nations  are  to-day  controlled  by  those  who 
have  a  direct  personal  interest  in  the  continuance  of  the 
present  order  rather  than  by  those  whose  relief  from 
the  present  order  is  urgent.  Years  of  effort  are  neces- 
sary, in  the  first  place,  to  educate  the  nations  to  the 
point  of  recognizing  the  need  of  world  legislation.  Fol- 
lowing that  will  come  years  of  struggle  by  the  educated 
reformers  to  win  tlieir  reform  against  the  entrenched 
opposition  of  the  powerful  classes  whose  interest  it  is  to 
maintain  and  perpetuate  the  monopolies.  It  is  high  time, 
therefore,  for  the  public  agitation  and  education  to  begin. 
Sore  enough  will  be  the  need  of  reform  by  the  time  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  will  be  able  to  secure  it. 

The  probable  course  in  the  establishment  of  the  woi'ld 
legislature  may  be  outlined  approximately  as  follows : 

First  step.  The  President  of  the  United  States,  let 
us  say,  acting  under  the  authority  of  Congress  or  on 
his  own  authority,  would  send  to  the  principal  nations 


48  WOULD  ORGANIZATION 

of  the  world  an  invitation  to  meet  in  Washington  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  and  setting  in  motion,  as 
far  as  practicable,  a  world  legislature.  That  invitation 
might  properly  contain  a  statement  that  the  people  of 
the  United  States  believed  in  the  unity  of  mankind  as 
an  organic  whole  regardless  of  any  man-made  laws  or 
Constitutions,  and  that  the  people  were  desirous  of  a 
practical,  formal  recognition  of  that  unity  in  order  that 
the  organic  growth,  prosperity,  and  peace  of  mankind 
might  be  promoted.  The  invitation  might  further  say 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States  recognized  that 
there  was  a  true  limit  to  the  nominal  sovereignty  of 
so-called  sovereign  nations,  and  that  they  were  ready  to 
surrender  formally  their  conceded  right  to  control  their 
own  course  upon  certain  matters  which  might  better  be 
placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  world  legislature. 
The  invitation  might  specify,  for  the  sake  of  a  frank 
and  friendly  beginning,  and  in  order  to  stimulate  the 
cooperation  of  other  nations,  such  matters  as  postal  regu- 
lations, arbitration,  customs  regulations,  world  patents, 
trademarks  and  copyrights,  world  coinage,  weights  and 
measures,  sanitary  regulations  for  great  ports  and  lines 
of  travel,  the  collection  of  world  statistics,  explorations 
of  geography  and  antiquities,  industrial  investigations, 
and  regulation  of  world  monopolies.  The  invitation 
might  request  the  invited  nations  to  specify  the  particu- 
lars in  which  they  would  consider  propositions  to  waive 
claims  of  sovereignty,  in  case  they  accepted  the  funda- 
mental principle  upon  which  the  invitation  was  based. 

Secofid  step.     The    nations    receiving  the   invitation 
would    severally   accept    or    decline.    If    any  declined, 


THE   WORLD    LKdLSl.ATURE  49 

then  an  end  of  progress  for  the  time  would  be  reached 
with  every  such  nation.  If  any  accepted,  they  could, 
in  sending  their  representatives,  eitlier  instruct  them 
or  omit  to  instruct  them  in  regard  to  the  claims  of 
sovereignty  which  they  would  waive  in  behalf  of  the 
sovereignty  of  mankind.  They  wt)uld  probably  reserve 
the  right  to  accept  or  reject  tiie  specilic  legislation 
proposed. 

Third  stejy.  Delegates  from  such  nations  as  accepted 
—  and  two  or  three  nations  would  suffice  for  a  begin- 
ning —  would  organize  for  action.  As  each  nation, 
whether  small  or  great,  would  be  on  an  equal  footing 
of  nominal  sovereignty  with  every  other,  it  would 
doubtless  be  found  expedient  or  necessary  to  allow  it 
only  one  vote,  whatever  the  number  of  delegates  it  miglit 
send.  After  organization  there  would  suitably  follow  a 
declaration,  in  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of  man- 
kind, agreed  to  by  all  the  participants  in  the  meeting,  to 
the  effect  that  the  purpose  of  the  participating  nations 
was  to  realize  their  higher  unity  by  means  of  world 
legislation.  Then  would  follow  practical  world  legis- 
lation, such  as  would  be  covered  by  the  terms  whereby 
certain  claims  to  absolute  sovereignty  had  been  condi- 
tionally surrendered  by  the  participating  nations,  joined 
with  a  declaration  that  it  should  become  operative  in 
the  nations  severally  when  accepted  by  them. 

Fourth  step.  The  proposed  legislation  of  the  first 
meeting  would  be  referred  to  the  respective  home 
governments  for  ratification. 

Then  regular  sessions  would  follow  according  to  the 
precedent  established,  resulting  in  the  development  of 


50  WOULD   ORGANIZATION 

mankind,  as  far  as  included  by  the  nations  represented, 
into  an  organic  whole. 

In  advancing  along  this  line  of  progress  the  nations 
would  be  passing  over  ground  previously  untrodden. 
Precedents  would  be  established  only  after  hesitation, 
doubt,  and  experiment.  Conservatism  and  old  accepted 
theories  would  be  perpetual  obstacles,  and  only  the  gen- 
uine unity  of  mankind,  working  out  for  the  benefit  of 
the  large  majority  against  holders  of  special  privilege, 
would  be  strong  enough  to  surmount  the  objections 
and  the  persistent  opposition.  Gradually  the  world 
would  realize  that  the  real  world  constitution  is  not  a 
form  of  government  set  up  by  men,  but  is  the  aggregate 
of  the  conditions  in  which  mankind  is  placed  by  a  Power 
superior  to  itself.  All  that  men  can  do  for  their  prog- 
ress and  prosperity  is  to  recognize  those  conditions,  and 
world  law,  national  law,  state  law,  city  ordinance,  and 
town-meeting  vote,  from  highest  to  lowest,  each  within 
its  sphere,  is  but  a  recognition  by  men  of  the  conditions 
placed  upon  them,  and  an  effort  to  conform  to  them. 

Hence,  in  the  light  of  this  truth,  world  progress  is 
only  an  adaptation  of  mankind  to  conditions.  Really 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  national  sovereignty. 
In  the  present  stage  of  world  progress  nations  are  recog- 
nized as  absolute  because  they  declare  themselves  to  be 
such,  and  no  power  is  strong  enough  to  disprove  their 
assertion.  But  they  are  parts  of  organic  humanity,  sub- 
ject to  its  laws.  From  that  relation  they  cannot  escape  ; 
from  those  laws  they  cannot  break  away. 

In  rising  to  the  height  of  world  legislation  the  nations 
^yould  be  simply  recognizing  a  higher  and  broader  truth 


THE  WORLD  LEGISLATURE  51 

in  their  relations  tlian  they  had  hitherto  admitted.  They 
would  not  create  any  new  relation,  except  in  a  limited 
sense.  They  would  recognize  the  truth  of  their  close 
relations  one  to  another  and  attempt  to  shape  their 
conduct  in  harmony  witli  those  relations,  instead  of 
shutting  their  eyes  to  the  truth  and  reaping  the  evil 
consequences  which  inevitably  befall  all  who  deny  the 
higher  truths  in  the  midst  of  which  they  live. 

Judging  from  experience  in  the  practice  under  the 
Hague  Court  of  Arbitration,  one  powerful  influence 
might  surely  be  counted  upon  to  promote  the  success 
of  the  first  attempts  at  world  organization.  That  would 
be  the  high  character  of  the  men  who  would  be  selected 
for  the  service  and  the  extreme  sensitiveness  of  all 
parties  to  conduct  proceedings  with  the  most  scrupu- 
lous honor.  Each  nation  would  select  for  its  servants 
in  world  organization  the  very  best  men  it  could  pos- 
sibly produce.  Petty  reasons  and  local  politics  would 
be  very  insignificant  factors  in  the  selection  of  these 
men.  All  the  nation,  not  a  faction  or  a  party,  would 
be  represented  on  the  world  stage,  in  sight  of  all  the 
world  and  under  the  criticism  of  the  keenest  intellects 
of  the  human  race.  No  nation  would  risk  its  interests 
or  its  reputation  by  sending  any  but  its  worthiest  and 
ablest  sons. 

While  legislation  was  in  progress,  the  world  legis- 
lature, conscious  that  the  world's  eyes  were  fixed  upon 
it,  scrutinizing  every  act  and  weighing  every  motive, 
would  be  watchful,  every  member  of  it,  to  see  that 
every  act  was  above  suspicion.  Existing  high  moral 
character  would  be  reenforced  by  a  constant  earnestness 


52  WOULD   ORGANIZATION 

to  keep  every  step  of  procedure  above  criticism  on 
moral  grounds.  A  high  standard  would  be  set  and 
maintained,  which  would  react  upon  the  nations  sever- 
ally and  upon  the  world  collectively,  and  would  pro- 
mote the  efficiency  of  the  organic  action  and  progress 
of  the  whole. 

Association  of  the  nations,  when  represented  by  such 
men,  would  surely  tend  to  remove  misunderstandings 
and  so  advance  friendliness  among  the  different  quarters 
of  the  globe.  Reasonableness  in  the  positions  of  differ- 
ent nations  would  be  seen  better  than  is  now  possible. 
World  peace,  from  this  added  reason,  would  be  pro- 
moted, and  the  material  prosperity  of  each  part  would 
advance  with  the  increasing  assurance  that  the  rights 
of  each  would  be  preserved  and  that  each  would  be 
safe  from  interference  in  its  effort  to  make  the  most 
and  the  best  of  itself. 

European  nations  have  made  in  recent  years  striking 
progress  toward  a  uniform  code  of  law  regardmg  social 
and  business  relations  of  individuals.  In  1874  the  gov- 
ernment of  The  Netherlands  suggested  the  holding  of 
a  conference  of  European  nations  to  consider  the  sub- 
ject. But  no  conference  was  Ireld  until  1893.  Another 
followed  in  1894,  and  the  third  in  1900.  Delegates 
from  fifteen  European  governments,  including  all  of 
the  great  Powers,  were  represented  at  the  conference 
of  1894.  A  protocol  was  adopted  recommending  to 
these  fifteen  nations  a  code  of  international  rules  in 
regard  to  marriage,  divorce,  separation,  guardianships, 
bankruptcies,  successions  by  will  or  descent,  and  civil 
procedure  relating  to  foreigners.    The  government  of 


THE  WOULD  LKGISLATUIIE  53 

Tlie  Netherlands  submitted  to  the  other  governments 
only  the  provisions  relating  to  civil  procedure.  The 
nations  adopted  tlieni  and  they  were  proclaimed  by 
treaty  in  December,  1897. 

In  1902  the  government  of  The  Netherlands,  as  an 
outcome  of  tlie  conference  at  The  Hague  in  1900, 
announced  that  twelve  European  powers  had  adopted 
and  proclaimed  uniform  international  rules  relating  to 
marriage,  divorce,  separation,  and  the  guardianship  of 
minors  in  all  cases  in  which  foreign  subjects  or  citizens 
were  concerned.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  reluctance 
of  Russia  and  Hungary,  there  would  have  been  adopted 
also  a  rule  relating  to  the  succession  of  property. 

But  the  nature  of  things  will  surely  assert  itself, 
however  long  the  time  may  be.  Mankind  is  advancing 
rapidly  to  the  consummation  of  organized  unity,  and 
self-interest,  intelligently  understood,  will  hasten  the 
process  more  and  more.  Though  the  Powers  may  for 
a  time  delay  full  recognition  of  the  world  legislature, 
yet  it  will  be  but  for  a  time,  and  in  the  fullness  of  evo- 
lution the  organ  of  the  intelligence  and  will  of  the  united 
Powers  will  reach  its  development  and  will  enjoy  uni- 
versal recognition.  Up  to  that  time  it  may  be  that  the 
Powers  will  dispense  with  a  world  court,  each  by  mutual 
consent  enforcing  within  its  own  boundaries  the  will  of 
the  world  as  recommended  by  the  advisory  congress 
and  ratified  by  the  Powers  severally.  But  the  point  will 
be  reached  when  the  superior  efficiency  of  a  true  world 
court  will  be  recognized,  and  then  there  will  be  devel- 
oped a  v.^orld  organ  to  determine,  for  enforcement  upon 
the  Powers,  the  meaning  and  application  of  the  world 


54  \V()K1>I)   OIUJANIZATION 

laws.  Following  this  development,  though  the  Powers 
may  for  a  time  carry  out  tlie  determinations  of  the 
court,  sooner  or  later  will  arise  the  world  executive  fo 
serve  instead  of  the  separate  service  of  the  Powers. 
Cases  of  nations  against  each  other,  such  as  are  now 
referred  to  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration,  would  come 
before  the  world  court  whether  they  arose  under  world 
law  or  not,  and  the  fact  that  such  cases,  arising  now 
outside  of  the  sphere  of  world  law,  are  referred  to  the 
Hague  Court  makes  it  -probable  that  the  functions  of 
that  court  will  be  enlarged  to  those  of  a  true  world 
court;  and  hence  it  is  reasonable  to  regard  the  Hague 
Court  as  a  true  beginning  of  the  world  judiciary. 


CHAPTER   V 
THE  WORLD  JUDICIARY 

According  to  the  common  use  of  the  word  "  court," 
as  meaning  an  institution  for  the  interpretation  and 
enforcement  (through  its  officers)  of  the  laws,  the  use 
of  the  word  in  the  phrase  "  The  Hague  Court  of  Arbi- 
tration "  is  a  misnomer.  No  law  of  nations  is  to  be 
enforced  by  the  Hague  Court  as  it  was  constituted  by 
the  celebrated  conference  which  established  it.  This 
court  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  interpretation  or 
enforcement  of  international  law.  It  was  created  for 
the  settlement  of  disputes  between  nations ;  and  the 
name  of  "court"  was  doubtless  applied  to  it  because  of 
the  feeling  that,  as  a  court  is  the  highest  place  known 
on  earth  for  the  attainment  of  justice,  and  as  the  employ- 
ment of  reason  rather  than  force  in  the  settlement  of 
the  disputes  of  nations  was  a  great  step  forward  in  the 
establishment  of  justice  on  earth,  it  was  eminently  fit- 
ting that  this  novel  and  revolutionary  institution  should 
be  dignified  with  the  most  complimentary  word  in  the 
languages  of  the  signatory  Powers  to  express  the  thing 
which  they  had  created. 

A  true  court  for  the  purpose  of  interpreting  and 
applying  international  law  does  not  exist,  save  as  dis- 
putes about  tlie  interpretation  of  international  law  or 
about    obligation    under    international    law    might    be 


56  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

referred  to  the  Hague  Court  by  the  disputing  nations, 
just  as  any  other  subject  of  dispute  might  be  referred 
to  it.  Yet  it  is  reasonable  to  regard  this  court  as  the 
beginning  of  a  true  system  of  world  judiciary.  Its 
name  conveys  the  idea  to  the  world,  even  though  the 
fact  is  wanting  to  the  name  ;  and  when  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  world  shall  have  reached  the  point  where 
the  need  of  a  true  world  court  becomes  pressing,  it  will 
be  most  natural  for  the  Powers  to  say:  ''Here  is  our 
world  court  already ;  let  it  perform  the  required  duty." 
Its  fitness  would  very  likely  be  regarded  as  esta])lished 
by  its  name  and  by  the  liigh  legal  and  moral  character 
of  its  members,  and  the  new  function  would  doubtless 
be  assumed  by  general  consent,  due  modification  having 
been  made  in  the  conditions  for  constituting  the  court 
or  for  bringing  business  before  it. 

In  the  natural  order  of  the  unfolding  of  the  organism 
of  united  mankind  the  world  court  would  not  delay  its 
appearance  long  after  tlie  establishment  of  the  world 
legislature,  though  it  is  to  l)e  remembered  that  in  all 
of  these  processes  ample  time  would  doubtless  be  con- 
sumed, just  as  in  the  geological  changes  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  earth's  crust  what  occupies  a  relatively  short 
time  may  be  a  long  one  measured  by  the  standard  of 
a  human  life.  The  increasing  frequency  of  world  con- 
gresses for  special  Imsiness  and  the  increasing  list  of 
subjects  upon  whicli  the  Powers  are  expressing  their 
will  and  are  saying  that  certain  things  must  be  done  in 
relation  to  them  show  that  the  era  of  a  regular  world 
legislature  is  not  far  distant,  though  it  may  be  a  long 
time  before  its  character  as  an  advisory  body  ceases  and 


THE  WORLD  JUDICIARY  67 

it  is  clothed  by  the  Powers  with  recognized  legislative 
authority,  as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
authority  over  the  people  of  the  states  composing  the 
Union. 

But  the  Hague  Court,  being  first  in  existence  and 
having  the  prestige  of  a  world  court,  would  come  in 
time  to  have  the  status  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 
world  ;  for  business  would  increase  and  would  be  classi- 
fied. Minor  cases  would  be  referred  to  subordinate  courts 
to  be  established  rather  than  to  permit  such  cases  to 
cumber  the  docket  of  the  only  world  court,  and  there 
would  be  no  danger  that  the  necessities,  the  perversity, 
and  the  limitations  of  men  would  not  supply  an  ample 
amount  of  business  for  such  courts  to  transact.  Differ- 
ent classes  of  cases  would  be  referred  to  different  sub- 
ordinate branches ;  and  so,  with  the  progress  of  the 
world,  with  the  development  of  world  business,  and  with 
the  ramification  of  world  law,  there  would  be  evolved  a 
judicial  system  for  the  promotion  of  justice  on  a  higher 
plane  than  would  be  covered  by  the  law  of  any  single 
nation.  The  ends  of  the  earth  wouUl  be  brought  together. 
No  place  would  be  too  remote  for  the  authority  of  the 
world  court  to  penetrate.  A  uniform  court  method  on 
great  matters  would  help  to  mold  the  nations  into  gen- 
uine unity,  and  the  reflex  action  upon  the  character  of 
nations  and  of  individuals  would  be  great. 

The  duties  and  obligations  of  the  Powers  to  the 
united  whole,  as  well  as  their  relations  to  each  other 
by  twos  or  threes,  would  be  within  the  province  of  the 
world  court  to  determine  under  the  authority  of  world 
law.    A  wholly  new  field  of  judicial  action  would  arise 


58  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

which  does  not  exist  now.  At  present  the  united  whole 
is  not  recognized.  It  has  no  voice,  it  has  no  organ,  its 
very  existence  is  thoroughly  denied  by  all  the  Powers. 
Each  asserts  its  own  supremacy  and  each  admits  no  limit 
to  its  absolute  sovereignty,  though  the  nature  of  things 
does  compel  each  to  admit  that  others  are  also  equally 
absolutely  sovereign.  But  the  duties  of  each  to  the 
united  whole  have  no  recognition  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case,  as  long  as  the  united  whole  is  not  recognized. 
Hence  there  remains  ta^be  developed  an  entire  sphere 
of  action  for  the  world  court  far  more  important  than 
that  of  passing  upon  the  relations  of  any  two  nations  or 
of  groups  of  nations  to  each  other. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  true  world  court  with 
full  court  powers  there  would  dawn  upon  the  vision  of 
the  nations  for  the  first  time  the  organ  of  justice  for 
the  united  whole  of  mankind.  Supremacy  of  that  whole 
over  every  part  would  be  asserted ;  subordination  of 
all  local  interests  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  would  be 
secured  by  the  reasonable  and  willing  consent  of  the 
parts ;  justice  to  the  smaller  parts  would  be  secured ; 
encroachments  of  the  strong  upon  the  weak  would  be 
prevented ;  unity  of  effort  by  all  the  parts  in  pressing 
forward  to  higher  ideals  of  civic  purity  and  strength 
would  be  promoted ;  the  moral  force  of  the  body  poli- 
tic of  the  world  would  be  immensely  increased  ;  and 
though  every  step  would  be  exposed  to  dangers  from 
the  vice,  the  selfishness,  the  pride,  the  corruption,  and 
the  love  of  despotism  that  inliere  in  all  men,  yet  it 
is  reasonable  to  affirm  that,  as  progress  is  now  made 
in  the  nations  in  overcoming  these  evils,  so  it  will  be 


THE  WORLD  JUDICIARY  59 

made  in  the  united  whole,  to  the  unspeakable  benefit 
of  mankind. 

Benefit  to  the  whole  of  necessity  carries  benefit  to  all 
the  parts.  A  world  judiciary  could  not  be  established 
without  giving  a  mighty  uplift  to  all  the  world.  The 
very  existence  of  a  recognized  organ  for  justice  to 
all  nations  would  give  stability  and  confidence  now 
unknown,  and  the  world  would  rise  to  a  moral  height 
undreamed  of  in  these  days  of  international  lawlessness 
when  the  weak  have  no  protection  against  the  strong 
and  when  international  law  still  goes  no  farther  than 
the  "accomplished  fact"  of  the  annihilation  of  a  help- 
less nation  by  an  aggressor  that  has  the  status  of  a 
robber  and  a  murderer.  A  new  day  would  dawn  upon 
the  consciousness  of  mankind.  To-day  the  final  arl^iter 
between  nations  is  force.  In  the  last  resort  a  race 
which  claims  to  possess  reason  as  its  crowning  distinc- 
tion from  the  brute  throws  aside  reason  and  accepts  the 
brute  in  man  as  the  righteous  and  supreme  source  of 
decision.  It  is  the  world  brutishness,  not  the  world 
reason,  which  dominates  the  relations  of  the  nations 
to-day.  Mankind  knows  it;  all  nations  realize  that  they 
are  under  the  curse.  Hence  the  moral  sense  of  the 
world  is  that  which  has  developed  only  in  an  environ- 
ment where  brute  force,  exerted  in  its  most  despotic, 
most  outrageous,  bloodiest,  and  most  terrible  form,  is 
supreme ;  where  all  justice,  all  humanity,  all  rights  of 
the  weak,  all  sorrows  of  women  and  children,  all  toil, 
suffering,  and  denth  of  men  are  counted  as  nothing  be- 
fore devastation  and  slaughter  by  the  strongest  brute; 
and  where  the  existence  of  nations  and  the  preservation 


60  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

of  whole  races  and  types  of  men  are  dependent  upon 
the  whim  of  a  victorious  brute  in  arms,  whose  lust  for 
destruction  or  passion  for  revenge  is  aroused  to  -the 
extreme.  To-day  the  world  is  in  a  state  of  anarchy 
and  fearful  apprehension  compared  with  the  serenity 
and  order  which  would  follow  the  recognition  by  the 
Oi'ganized  whole  of  a  capable  organ  for  the  determina- 
tion of  justice  and  the  enforcement  of  the  rights  of  each 
and  every  part  as  subordinate  to  and  harmonious  with 
the  rights  of  the  whole.  So  much  greater  is  the  whole 
than  any  of  its  parts,  that  every  part,  even  the  most 
powerful,  now  staggering  under  a  heavy  load  of  military 
armament  for  self-protection,  would  utter  an  exclamation 
of  relief  and  joy  on  hearing  that  it  was  an  accomplished 
fact  that  a  true  world  court  had  been  established  to  do 
justice  to  all  parts  of  mankind  and  to  preserve  the  due 
supremacy  of  the  whole  over  each  and  all  of  the  parts. 
Inspiration  by  the  world  court  would  come  in  its 
appeal  to  the  brightest,  the  strongest,  the  purest,  and 
the  most  spiritual  minds  of  the  entire  race.  It  would 
reach  all  nations ;  it  would  cover  a  new  field ;  it  would 
challenge  the  abilities  of  the  best  minds  on  earth;  it 
would  have  to  do  with  men  in  the  highest  and  best 
human  relations  ;  it  would  appeal  to  reason  and  justice; 
it  would  demand  the  largest  constructive  statesmanship 
which  the  most  original  and  judicial  minds  could  attain  ; 
it  would  establish  precedents  of  momentous  importance 
in  the  development  of  the  world.  Not  only  would  it 
appeal  to  and  stimulate  the  best  there  is  in  the  human 
race,  but  by  its  effect  upon  individuals  and  upon  nations 
it  would  tend  to  develop  the  qualities  it  demanded,  and  it 


THE  WORLD  JUDICIARY  61 

would  be  a  mighty  influence  for  raising  the  intellectual 
and  moral  (qualities  of  men  and  of  nations.  Certainty 
of  the  coming  of  the  political  unity  of  mankind  is  in 
itself  a  prophecy  of  better  days,  and  the  optimism  of 
the  enthusiast  is  warranted  by  the  development  of  the 
past,  when  we  see  how  the  ideals  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion have  themselves  produced,  as  they  have  demanded, 
higher  types  of  men  and  of  nations. 

Diflficulties  will  doubtless  occur  in  the  formation  of 
the  world  court  and  in  the  determination  of  its  func- 
tions, but  they  will  not  all  occur  at  once.  All  the  hills 
in  a  hilly  journey  are  not  in  one  place,  and  three  liills 
of  thirty  degrees  each  are  not  equal  to  a  perpendicular 
wall  of  ninety  degrees.  The  perfected  court  is  to  be 
obtained  by  evolution,  one  stage  at  a  time,  as  a  rule. 
A  way  was  found  to  create  the  board  of  arbitrators  for 
the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration,  yet  national  jealousies 
and  suspicions  had  ample  field  for  exercise  before  that 
notable  agreement  was  reached.  The  original  states  of 
the  American  Union  before  they  came  into  the  Union 
faced  the  probability  that  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  would  be  constituted  without  a  member,  ever  or 
always,  to  represent  them  severally;  yet  the  fact  was 
not  a  bar  to  the  establishment  of  the  Union  with  a 
Supreme  Court  whose  impartiality  toward  all  states  is 
equally  admitted  by  all  and  whose  competency  to  fulfill 
its  office  is  generally  conceded.  In  the  years  coming 
when  the  nations  understand  each  other  as  well  as  our 
states  now  do  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  they  will 
agree  upon  a  practical  world  court,  though  only  a  few 
nations  can  at  the  same  time  be  represented  upon  the 


G2  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

bench.  Given  the  need  and  the  practicability  of  such  a 
court,  and  it  is  a  safe  prediction  that  the  nations  will 
solve  tlie  problems  in  the  way  of  its  establishment.    - 

In  all  these  details  of  world  organization  there  is  need 
first  of  familiarizing  the  nations  with  the  practicability 
of  the  reforms  proposed,  in  order  that  active  effort  may 
Be  stimulated.  As  the  ideas  gain  ground,  the  urgency 
of  the  reform  will  become  more  evident,  and  then  with 
the  need  and  the  purpose  both  in  active  existence  the 
way  to  secure  the  reforms  will  be  found,  to  the  un- 
speakal)le  benefit  of  all  nations,  as  they  emerge  from 
the  anarchy  of  war  and  the  mire  of  militarism  to  the 
solid  ground  of  the  reign  of  world  law  supported  by  a 
world  court  and  administered  by  the  united  power  of 
the  world. 


I 


CPIAPTER   VI 

THE  WORLD  EXECUTIVE 

Political  development  is  as  truly  an  unfolding  as  is 
the  development  of  vegetable  life.  In  the  fullness  of 
time  there  is  now  in  sight  world  business  sufficient  in 
amount  and  miscellaneous  enough  in  character  to  justify 
the  establishment  of  a  regular  international  congress, 
or  world  legislature.  But  tliis  stage  has  been  reached 
slowly.  It  could  not  have  come  before  the  world  had 
been  brought  together  by  steam  and  electricity  or  before 
the  newspapers  had  made  the  people  of  one  nation 
more  or  less  familiar  with  the  people  and  events  of 
all  the  other  nations.  It  could  not  have  come  before 
statesmen  had  become  accustomed  to  thinking  in  world 
terms.  It  has  been  preceded  by  centuries  of  slow  growth 
during  which  the  unfolding  could  scarcely  be  detected 
and  in  which  the  ideal  seemed  to  be  visionary  beyond 
possible  realization.  But  treaty  relations  between  two 
nations  were  followed  by  arrangements  involving  more 
than  two.  International  understandings  were  succeeded 
by  formal  conferences  or  congresses.  Specific  subjects 
of  common  interest  were  considered  by  representatives 
of  an  increasing  number  of  nations  until  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Universal  Postal  Union  by  all  the 
nations  of  the  globe  worthy  of  the  name  true  world 
legislation    including    the    largest    number    of    human 

63 


64  AVORLD  ORGANIZATION 

beings  was  enacted  by  agreement  of  all  nations  repre- 
sented and  a  strong  precedent  was  set  for  regular 
world  legislation. 

In  a  similar  way  there  has  been  an  unfolding  until 
the  present  stage  of  the  world  judiciary  has  been  reached. 
Ij^is  true  that  this  stage  is  as  yet  very  little  developed. 
It  is  true  that  a  large  broadening  must  occur  before  the 
full  proportions  of  a  world  court  are  attained.  But  it  is 
none  the  less  true  that  in  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitra- 
tion there  has  been  laid^he  solid  and  permanent  founda- 
tion of  a  world  judiciary.  The  growth  began  far  in  the 
past.  It  can  be  seen  in  the  efforts  of  nations  to  settle 
their  differences  by  other  means  than  war.  It  developed 
into  formal,  repeated,  and  successful  instances  of  arbi- 
tration until  the  wisdom  of  this  method  over  war  con- 
vinced the  world  and  the  Hague  Court  was  established. 

Neither  world  legislation  nor  world  arbitration  has 
been  secured  suddenly  by  the  creation  of  a  machine 
having  no  antecedents  in  kind,  but  the  unfolding  has 
continued  according  to  a  process  similar  to  the  unfold- 
ing of  plant  life. 

In  the  case  of  the  world  executive,  therefore,  it  is 
reasonable  to  expect  that  a  paTallel  course  will  be  fol- 
lowed. Events  tend  so  strongly  to  the  political  organi- 
zation of  the  world  into  one  body  that  it  is  evident  that 
the  consummation  will  surely  occur  under  the  influence 
of  existing  forces.  But  political  organization  requires 
three  kinds  of  organs,  and  only  three,  —  the  legislative, 
the  judicial,  and  the  executive.  The  first  two  being 
already  in  the  process  of  unfolding,  it  is  timely  to  look 
for  the  third. 


THE  WORLD  EXECUTIVE  65 

An  esficutive— is~one  who  carries  out  the  will  of  a 
^sutjerior.  In_the_caaea£  world -wilLthe  .best  illustration: 
is_thg_£iitablishment  of  the  Universal  Postal  Union.  In 
the  main,  the  execution  of  the  details  of  the  system  is 
necessarily  left  to  the  separate  nations.  But  the  perti- 
nent point  here  is  the  fact  that  the  Universal  Fo&tal 
Union,  which  is  a -world  body,  has  a  permanent  _secre- 
tary,  whose  office  is  in  Berne,  Switzerland.  Here  is  an 
executive _officer  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  ( stalj- 
li^hed^by  the  will  of  the  world.  The  nations  cii'  the 
world,  all  represented  in  the  Universal  Postal  Union, 
have  expressed  their  will  that  here  shall  be  a  servant  of 
all  to  execute  the  will  of  all.  Therefoj;e^iii  liiis  ol'lice  we 
_hiULe_-th©-g^erln  of  a  true  world  executive.  It  seems  to 
be  a  small  office;  but  its  nature,  not  the  number  or  im- 
portance of  its  functions,  is  the  criterion  by  which  it  is 
to  be  classified.  The  world  executive  has  begun  to  grow. 
A  second  instance  of  a  genuine  world  executive,  as 
far  as  the  nations  concerned  represent  the  world,  is  that 
of  ^tlie^International  Committee  of  Weights  and  Meas- 
ui'es.  This  committee  is  an  executive  board  always  in 
existence,  whose  agent  is  the  director  of  the  Interna- 
tional Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures.  On  May  20, 
1875,  seventeen  of  the  nineteen  countries  which  were 
represented  at  the  diplomatic  metrical  conference  at 
Paris  signed  a  convention  which  /'provided— for  the 
establishment  and  maintenance,  at  the  joint  cost  of  the 
contracting  parties,  of  a  permanfintjnternational  bui'eaii 
of  weights  and  measures,  td  be  situated  at  or  near  Paris 
and  to  be  declared  neutral.  Its  operations  were  to 
be  uader  the   exclusij^,  direction  of  an   international 


66 


WORLD   ORGAXIZATION 


/ 


committee  of  fourteen  persons,  all  belonging  to  the 
countries  represented.  The  conference  meets  every  six 
years.  These  seventeen  nations,  representing  a  large 
part  of  the  progressive  force  of  the  world,  have  thus 
established  by  their  joint  action  this  executive  depart- 
ment, which  may  correctly  be  put  into  the  class  of  a 
world  executive. 

The  international  bureau  in  connection  with  the 
Hague  Court  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  ^orld, 
as  far  as  the  contracting  parties  represent  the  world, 
has  executive  duties  to  perform  i -^but  as  the  bureau  is 
specifically  given  the  status  of  a  clerk's  office  for  the 
court,  it  might  seem  like  straining  a  point  to  class  it 
with  the  world-executive  offices  already-es^tablishedj 

But  the  body  superior  to  this  bureau,  the  "  Permanent 
Administration  Council,"  is  a  true  world  executivebody,^ 
as  far  as  the  signatory  Powers  to  the  Hague  convention 
represent  the  world,  though  its  administrative  duties 
are  for  the  time  limited  to  matters  connected  with  the 
Hague  Court.  This  council  is  "charged  with  the  estab- 
hshment  and  organization  of  the  international  bureau, 
which  shall  remain  under  its  direction  and  control.  .  .  . 
It__shall  decide  all  administrative  questions  which  may 
arise  relating  to  the  working  of  the  court.  .  .  .  The 
council  shall  report  without  delay  to  the  signatory  Pow- 
ers the  rules  adopted  by  it.  It  shall  report  to  them  each  "^ 
year  upon  the  work  of  the  court,  the  way  in  which  the 
administrative  service  has  been  performed,  and  the 
expenses." 

This  is  tnie-ex-ecutiye_work,  and  the  executiveHoody 
is  directly  responsible  to  the  law-making  body,  or  to  the 


/ 


THE  WORLD  EXECUTIVE  67 


tatknis  wllicli  established  this  executive 
Thus  we  have  this  third  illustration  of  the 
development  of  a  true  world-executive  function  for 
the  benefit  of  the  world.  In  the  very  nature  of  the 
case,  other  illustrations  may  be  expected,  and  there  are 
existing  instances  in  which  work  of  an  executive  nature 
for  different  nations  is  being  done  by  scientific  bodies 
in  separate  countries.  This  is  genuine  and  visible  prog- 
ress, pointing  to  the  evolution,  in  time,  of  some  higher 
ofiicial  to  co()rdinate  the  work  of  these  separate  offices 
and  to  subordinate  all  disjointed  work  to  the  orderly 
good  of  the  whole. 

True  executives  are  servants.  The  hand  is  not  as 
high  as  the  brain.  It  is  for  the  world  will,  rej^resented 
by  the  law-making  power  of  the  world,  to  say  what  shall 
be  done.  It  is  for  the  executive  organs  which  it  creates 
to  do  it.  In  the^  nature  of  the  unfolding,  world  execu- 
tives of  large  powers  will  not  be  seen  early.  A  world 
president  will  be  the  culmination  of  the  system.  Before 
he  appears  upon  the  scene  there  must  be  many  minor 
forms  of  world  executive.  We  may  get  an  illustration 
from  state  and  national  practices.  For  the  accomplish- 
ment of  certain  service  to  the  political  body  certain 
men  are  set  aside  to  oversee — perhaps  merely  to  investi- 
gate and  to  report  upon,  perhaps  to  administer — certain 
fields  in  which  the  public  welfare  is  specially  concerned. 
,  Boards,  bureaus,  or  commissions  are  thus  set  up  for. 
specialjunctiojis.  They  are  established  by  the  national 
will  (speaking  here  of  those  nations  in  which  the  will  of 
the  people  is  represented  in  the  government)  and  are 
responsible,  in  the  last  resort,  to  it.    Very  likely  these 


68  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

organs  of  service  are  independent  of  each  other  and 
unrelated  to  each  other,  save  that  they  have  a  common 
origin. 

In  the  unfokling  of  the  world  executive,  therefore,  it 
is  to  be  expected  that  the  process  will  be  by  develop- 
ment of  such  organs.  In  the  first  place^it  is  ,to— be^ 
expected  that  they  will  be  created  for _some__particiLlar 
service,  just  as  w^orld  legislation  began  in  special  con- 
gresses or  conferences  and  as  special  instances  of  arbi- 
tration preceded  the  estai)iishment  of  the  Hague  Court. 
Perhaps  there  might  be  selected  a  body_  of  medical 
experts  to  decide  what  world  regulations  there  should 
be  to  prevent  the  spread  of  sometlifeatenirtg  plague  Or  to 
investigate  the  status  of  consumption  or  cancer  all  over 
the  world.  Such  a  body  might  lead  to  the  establishment 
of  a  permanent  bureau  to  have  oversight  of  conditions 
of  world  health. 

So,  from  field  to  field,  from  special  service  to  perma- 
nent, the  unfolding  would  proceed,  until  the  stage  was 
reached  at  which  some  coordination  of  the  executive 
offices  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  world.  Then 
the  time  would  be  ripe  for  a  chief  executive  of  the 
_vvorld.  But  he  would  be  a  commissioner  in  chief,  or 
minister  in  chief,  really  a  servant  in  chief,  to- execute 
the  will  of  the  world  for  the  harmonious  administration 
of  the  different  departments,  tq_study_the-_srarkiiigs  of  - 
the  organs  created  for  separate  functions,  to  correct 
their  defects  by  pointing  out  where  they  were  organic- 
ally defective  or  by  improving  the  administration  by 
personal  supervision  and  effort  when  the  defect  was  one 
of  administration  alone.    The  fffue  world  execative  will 


THE  WORLD  EXECUriVE  69 

never  be  the  ruler  of  the  world  uuleiis  the  people  of  tlie 
world  surrender  their  rights  and  beeonie  slaves,  which 
is^unlhinkable.  World  empire  could  be  possible  only 
with  world  slavery  for  the  mass  of  the  human  race;  and 
the  people  of  the  world  are  too  far  advanced  for  that  to 
be  tolerable.  The  world  president  will  not  be  responsi- 
ble for  tlie  human  race ;  he  will  be  a  very  subordi- 
nate official  though  at  the  head  of  an  immensely 
extended  and  complicated  system  of  offices,  and  it  will 
be  his  duty  to  see  that  the  offices  perform  their  func- 
tions and  that  the  officers  are  diligent,  efficient,  and 
honest.  Supreme  over  all  will  be  the  world  will;  and  it 
will  be  for  the  intelligence  of  the  world  to  watch  over 
its  executives,  chief  and  subordinate,  and  make  sure 
of  honest  and  competent  administration. 

It  may  be  that  the  world  executive  will  be  reached 
by  a  short  cut  without  waiting  for  this  unfolding  in 
detail.  If  there  should  be  a  rapid  development  of  the 
world  sense  of  world  unity,  and  if  the  nations  should  be 
ready  early  to  surrender  formally  their  claim  to  absolute 
sovereignty,  they  might  agree  early  to  put  the  enforce- 
ment of  such  world  legislation  as  shall  have  been  en- 
acted into  the  hands  of  a  single  world  executive,  giving 
him  power  and  responsibility,  and  so  they  might  reach 
consummation  sooner.  Eventually,  however,  it  must 
be  believed,  both  lines  of  development,  or  the  discharge 
of  both  classes  of  functions,  will  merge  into  one. 

So  much,  in  brief,  forecasting  the  future  from  our 
experience,  we  can  say  concerning  the  world  executive. 
The  ideal  no  more  presupposes  perfection  in  the  admin- 
istration than  the  ideal  of  state  or  national  executive 


70  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

presupposes  state  or  national  executives  beyond  criti- 
cism. The  main  point  to  notice  is  that  the  world  is 
surely  advancing  toward  political  organization  as  "a 
single  body,  that  such  an  organism  necessitates  the 
three  kinds  of  organs,  and  that  the  unfolding  of  the 
executive  seems  certain  to  be  from  insignificant  begin- 
ninsrs  to  the  full  office  of  executive  in  chief  for  the 
world. 

Those  who  are  fearful  regarding  the  development  of 
mankind  into  a  single  political  body  because  of  possibil- 
ities of  extreme  centralization  of  power,  and  the  danger 
of  despotism  by  the  central  authority  over  any  of  the 
parts,  have  no  ground  for  their  fears,  if  this  forecast  of 
the  line  of  development  is  reasonable,  —  and  that  it  is 
reasonable  is  the  object  of  the  attempted  demonstration. 
Central  authority  will  not  be  despotic  as  long  as  the 
parts  insist  upon  their  rights  as  well  as  their  duties, 
because  the  parts  together  constitute  and  control  the 
whole.  Doubtless  it  will  tend  to  become  despotic  just 
as  far  as  the  parts  are  lax  in  insisting  upon  their  rights, 
and  as  far  as  great  nations  conspire  to  oppress  small 
ones.  Years  and  centuries  will  not  change  the  truth  or 
the  pertinence  of  the  saying  that  "  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty";  and  this  vigilance,  whatever  lapses 
it  may  suffer,  will  surely  accomplish  its  great  practical 
result,  for  the  days  of  humble  watchmen  for  the  public 
weal  are  not  ended,  and  brave  men  are  still  willing  to 
die  for  justice. 


CHAPTER  VII 
AVORLD  LEGISLATION   ALREADY  ACCOMrLTSHED 

As  we  learn  by  building  what  we  did  not  know  upon 
what  we  knew  already,  and  so  seem  always  to  be  acting 
conservatively,  so  we  advance  politically  by  fitting  new 
ideas  upon  existing  practices.  Thus  progress  is  made 
with  assurance  of  safety,  and  a  reform  is  half  won  when 
precedent  can  be  found  for  the  pending  proposition  or 
it  can  be  shown  to  involve  no  marked  new  departure. 
So  the  plan  for  a  world  legislature  gets  much  help  from 
recent  history.  Probably  few  persons  realize  the  amount 
of  world  legislation  which  has  been  done  already.  It  may 
be  said  that  there  is  no  world  legislature  and  therefore 
world  legislation  is  impossible.  But  consider  a  moment. 
Just  look  at  the  great  array  of  facts  and  let  them  shape 
your  opinion.  The  legislation  of  a  state  or  nation  is 
the  expression  of  the  will  of  the  state  or  nation  by  duly 
authorized  representatives.  If  representatives  of  the 
nations  of  the  world  express  the  will  of  the  world  (as 
far  as  the  nations  taking  part  represent  the  whole 
world),  then  that  expression  of  world  will  is  world 
legislation. 

Take  the  best  illustration  first.  This  is  the  case  of 
the  Universal  Postal  Union  ;  for  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  a  round  hundred  at  least,  have  joined  this  Union 
and  are  an  organic  part  of  it.    They  have  held  their 

71 


72  WOULD  ORGANIZATION 

international  congresses,  expressed  their  will  in  them, 
and  have  carried  that  will  into  effect.  There  is  genuine 
world  legislation  by  a  genuine  world  congress  upon  a 
matter  of  importance  to  all  the  world.  That  legislation 
is  operative  in  a  large  degree  all  over  the  world,  every 
day  of  the  year,  and  is  of  wide  benefit  to  every  person 
who  has  to  do  with  the  transport  of  mails  from  one 
country  to  another.  The  first  International  Postal  Con- 
gress, which  organized  the  Universal  Postal  Union,  was 
held  in  Berne,  Switzerland,  in  1874,  The  last  session 
was  held  in  Washington  in  1897  and  was  attended  by 
representatives  of  every  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
That  gathering  was  a  world  legislature,  in  a  sense,  though 
it  did  not  have  the  power  to  bind  the  nations  as  the 
states  and  citizens  of  the  states  are  bound  by  the  acts 
of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  It  is  not  asserted 
that  this  world  legislation  has  yet  reached  the  stage  of 
a  mandate  accepted  without  dispute  by  the  nations  repre- 
sented. That  stage  is  yet  to  come ;  but  the  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  nations  by  representatives  of  the 
nations  has  already  been  accomplished,  and,  what  is 
much  to  the  point,  that  will  is  executed  practically  as  if 
it  were  binding  upon  the  participants. 

Legislation  of  this  sort,  it  will  be  observed,  is  different 
from  treaty  agreements  and  stands  upon  a  higher  plane. 
It  may  be  supported  by  all  of  the  nations  in  the  world, 
as  the  Universal  Postal  Union  is,  or  ]»y  a  smaller  num- 
ber. Enough  of  the  large  nations  may  l)e  participants 
to  give  their  action  the  practical  standing  of  world 
legislation,  though  many  small  nations  have  nothing 
to  say  about  the  subject-matter  of  their  action. 


WORLD   LEGISLATION  ACCOMPLISHED  73 

These  international  congresses  and  conferences,  which 
have  a  higher  rank  than  the  meeting  of  nations  for  treaty- 
making  purposes,  began  in  Europe,  where  the  necessities 
of  the  case  led  to  their  development  earlier  than  else- 
where. Naturally  they  were  not  as  inclusive  as  the 
later  ones,  but  they  belong  in  the  same  class.  They 
were  not  held  nearly  as  frequently  as  such  international 
gatherings  have  been  held  in  recent  years.  In  the  nature 
of  the  case,  too,  each  was  for  a  special  sul)ject,  and  the 
powers  of  the  delegates  were  limited  far  more  than  they 
would  be  in  such  a  body  as  is  contemplated  by  the  peti- 
tions for  a  world  legislature  or  a  regular  international 
congress. 

Accompanying  the  petition  of  the  American  Peace 
Society  for  a  regular  international  congress,  presented 
to  the  Massachusetts  legislature  in  1903,  was  a  list  of 
twenty-seven  such  international  gatherings  illustrating 
the  gradual  getting  together  of  the  nations  for  their 
common  interest  and  for  agreement  upon  some  common 
course  of  action.  Others,  perhaps,  might  be  included  in 
the  list,  but  it  shows  how  fast  the  nations,  in  recent 
years,  have  been  coming  to  agreements  for  their  mu- 
tual benefit  and  expressing  their  wills  for  their  separate 
giiidance. 

In  1815  occurred  the  Congress  of  Vienna  by  the 
great  European  Powers,  which  fixed  a  status  for 
Europe  after  the  downfall  of  Napoleon  and  gave  peace 
to  Europe.  This  congress  guaranteed  the  neutralization 
of  Switzerland. 

In  1825  came  the  Conference  of  St.  Petersburg,  by 
which  the  nations  practically  interfered  with  the  Turkish 


74  WORLD  OliGANIZATION 

government  and  opened  the  way  for  the  independence 
of  Greece. 

In  1831  was  the  Conference  of  London,  by  whicji 
Holland  and  Belgium  were  guaranteed  to  be  inde- 
pendent nations. 

In  185G  occurred  the  Congress  of  Paris,  and  an 
international  status  for  Europe  was  reached  regarding 
the  consequences  of  the  Crimean  war. 

In  18G4  came  the  meeting  of  the  representatives  of 
the  nations  in  the  Congress  at  Geneva  which  organized 
the  International  Red  Cross  Society. 

In  1867  was  the  Conference  of  London  which  neutral- 
ized the  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxemburg. 

In  1868  the  Congress  of  St.  Petersburg,  composed  of 
representatives  of  nations  which  felt  that  the  barbarities 
of  war  must  be  ameliorated^  put  restrictions  upon  the 
use  of  bullets  which  were  especially  savage  in  their  work. 

In  1871  the  Conference  of  London  made  modifica- 
tions in  the  Paris  arrangements  of  1856. 

In  1874,  at  the  Congress  of  Brussels,  was  made  a 
further  improvement  in  the  laws  of  war  and  a  restate- 
ment of  such  laws. 

In  1874,  also,  at  Berne,  was  the  first  International 
Postal  Congress,  already  mentioned  above.  1 

In  1875  there  met  in  Paris  the  Metrical  Diplomatic 
Congress  which  prepared  the  metric  convention.  It  was 
provided  that  a  general  conference  on  weights  and 
measures  should  meet  at  Paris  at  least  once  in  six 
years.  Thus  for  this  particular  subject  there  was  estab- 
lished a  regular  time  of  meeting  for  an  indefinite  future, 
setting  a  precedent  for  what  is  proposed  in  the  resolution 
for  a  regular  international  congress.  „. 


WOUIJ)    LKCISLAllOX    ACCOM riJSlIKD  75 

In  1875  there  was  an  International  Telegraphic  Con- 
ference at  St.  Petersburg. 

In  1877  there  was  held  the  Conference  of  European 
nations  at  Constantinople  for  the  defense  of  the  rights 
of  the  Christian  subjects  of  Turkey. 

In  1878  following  the  treaty  of  San  Stefano,  which 
was  made  at  the  end  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  the 
representatives  of  the  great  European  Powers  met  at 
Berlin,  and  made  radical  modifications  in  that  treaty. 
They  rearranged  the  map  of  eastern  Europe. 

In  1878  came  the  fiist  International  Monetary  Con- 
ference at  Paris,  u})on  the  invitation  of  the  United  States. 

In  1881  there  met  at  Paris  the  second  International 
Monetary  Conference,  upon  the  invitation  of  the  United 
States  and  France. 

In  1884  the  Congo  Free  State  was  created  by  the 
International  Conference  which  met  at  Berlin  to  con- 
sider the  West  African  situation. 

In  1885  in  the  interest  of  science  and  commerce  there 
met  at  Washington,  by  invitation  of  the  United  States, 
representatives  of  twenty-six  nations  to  agree  upon  a 
prime  meridian. 

In  1889  occurred  the  Marine  Conference  at  Washing- 
ton to  establish  usages  of  the  sea  for  the  common 
observance  of  the  nations. 

In  1889  came  the  first  pan-American  Conference  at 
Washington  to  consider  interests  of  the  nations  of  the 
two  Americas. 

In  1890  occurred  at  Brussels  the  Antislavery  Con- 
ference to  bring  the  united  pressure  of  civilized  nations 
against  the  horrors  of  the  African  slave  trade  whose 
exposure  shocked  the  world. 


76  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

In  1892  occurred  the  International  Sanitary  Con- 
ference at  Venice,  and  the  protocol  drawn  there  was 
signed  by  the  representatives  of  fifteen  nations. 

In  1893  came  the  second  International  Sanitary  Con- 
ference, at  Dresden,  at  which  nineteen  nations  were 
represented, 

T^n  1896  occurred  at  Washington  the  Universal  Postal 
Congress  which  was  mentioned  above. 

In  1899  came  at  The  Hague  the  famous  Peace  Con- 
ference, which  establislied  the  International  Court  of 
Arl)itration  which  is  sure  to  have  such  an  immense 
effect  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

In  1901  was  the  Congress  of  leading  European  Powers 
at  Brussels  which  provided  for  the  abolition  of  national 
bounties  in  sugar. 

In  1901,  also,  occurred  at  the  City  of  Mexico  the 
second  pan-American  Conference,  shared  by  representa- 
tives of  nearly  every  nation  of  North  and  South  America, 
for  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  all  by  common 
arrangements,  especially  relating  to  business  matters. 

Here  is  a  long  start  toward  the  practical  getting 
together  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world  for  an  expres- 
sion of  their  common  judgment  and  common  will  for 
their  common  good.  All  these  gatherings  have  been 
severely  practical.  Sentiment,  as  distinguished  from 
business,  was  a  small  factor.  The  same  business  sense, 
seeing  how  the  good  of  the  nations  will  be  promoted  by 
their  common  action,  will  insist  upon  further  agree- 
ments ;  and  thus  will  grow  that  body  of  international 
will  which  is  really  world  law. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WORLD  BUSINESS  NOW  PENDING 

President  Roosevelt's  promise  to  the  committee  of  the 
Interparliamentary  Union  that  he  would  call  a  second 
session  of  the  Hague  Peace  Conference,  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  civilized  nations.  It  has  already  become 
a  matter  of  world  importance.  In  the  resolution  under 
which  the  committee  acted  in  giving  the  President  the 
request  of  the  Union  were  three  specifications.  The  first 
was  that  the  coming  peace  conference  should  attend  to 
several  important  matters  upon  which  the  Conference 
of  1898  desired  that  action  should  be  taken.  Tlie  second 
specification  mentioned  the  negotiation  of  arbitration 
treaties.  The  third  suggested  considering  the  advisa- 
bility of  calling  a  regular  international  congress  to  meet 
periodically,  to  discuss  matters  of  common  interest  to 
the  nations. 

With  all  due  regard  for  the  gravity  of  the  subjects 
proposed  for  discussion,  especially  the  reduction  of 
national  armaments,  which  is  one  of  the  items  included 
in  the  first  specification,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  the 
tliird  proposition  is  the  most  important  of  them  all. 
In  its  present  definite  form  it  is  tlie  outgrowth  of  a 
resolution  adopted  unanimously  by  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  in  1903,  asking  our  Congress  to  authorize 
the   President  to  call  a  conference  to  establish  such  a 

77 


78  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

congress  as  is  proposed.  The  committee  of  the  Inter- 
parliamentary Union  by  a  short  cut  brought  the  matter 
directly  before  the  President,  and  he  promptly  gave  his 
promise  to  call  the  conference. 

This  movement  is  the  first  definite  step  toward  the 
organization  of  all  the  world  into  a  single  body  politic ; 
and  one  of  its  propositions  is  that,  however  distant  may 
be  the  realization  of  the  idea,  whatever  obstacles  may 
be  in  the  way,  and  however  immature  the  world  may  be 
for  the  consummation,  the  time  is  ripe  for  regular  ses- 
sions of  representatives  of  the  nations  for  friendly  discus- 
sion of  common  concerns,  with  the  function  of  making 
recommendations  for  action,  which  shall  be  referred  to 
the  home  governments  for  ratification. 

The  fundamental  proposition  is  that  mankind  is  one. 
Following  that  comes  the  first  consequence  :  that,  there- 
fore, there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  national  sov- 
ereignty, —  even  though  every  nation  disputes  the 
proposition,  —  but  that  there  is  a  sovereignty  of  man- 
kind which  will  ultimately  be  recognized,  in  practice, 
as  supreme. 

To  maintain  the  proposition  that  the  times  are  ripe 
for  the  regular  meeting  of  an  international  congress 
which  will  develop  into  a  true  world  legislature,  it  is 
to  be  noticed,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  is  no  defi- 
nitely established  and  generally  recognized  body  of 
international  law.  However  definite  certain  proposi- 
tions may  be,  there  is  much  haze  over  the  body  of 
international  law  as  a  whole. 

A  few  words  are  pertinent  regarding  the  sources  of 
international  law.    The  late  Freeman  Snow  of  Harvard 


WORLD  BUSINESS  NOW  I'ENDING  79 

University,  in  lectures  before  the  Naval  War  College, 
published  in  1898,  gives  this  definition  of  international 
law: 

International  law,  as  commonly  understood,  is  that  body  of 
rules  which  governs  generally  the  actions  oi'  modern  civilized 
states  in  their  intercourse  with  one  another.  These  rules  are 
the  outgrowth  of  the  customs  arising  from  the  intercourse  of 
nations,  of  various  international  agreements,  and  of  the  acts  of 
states,  which  have  in  tlie  lapse  of  time  been  accepted  as  of  bind- 
ing force  by  the  various  civilized  states  of  the  world.  They  may 
be  considered  as  based  upon  the  moral  and  intelligent  convictions 
of  enlightened  mankind. 

Professor  Snow  recognizes  seven  sources  of  this  law : 

1.  Works  of  great  publicists — the  text  writers  of  authority. 
These  give  both  pi'inciples  and  usages. 

2.  Decisions  and  conclusions  of  prize  courts,  of  official  inter- 
national conferences,  and  of  arbitral  tribunals. 

3.  Ti-eaties. 

4.  State  papers  of  jurists  and  opinions  of  attorneys-general,  con- 
fidentially and  otherwise  given  to  their  respective  governments. 

5.  Instructions,  regulations,  and  ordinances  issued  by  the 
states  for  the  guidance  of  their  own  citizens  or  subjects,  and 
officers  and  tribunals. 

6.  History  of  wars,  negotiations,  and  current  events. 

7.  The  proposed  codes  and  formulated  views  of  voluntary 
international  associations  of  jurists. 

Hannis  Taylor,  formerly  United  States  minister  to 
Spain,  in  his  voluminous  Treatise  07i  International  Lau\ 

says : 

International  law  may  be  defined  to  be  the  aggregate  of  rules 
regulating  the  intercourse  of  states,  which  have  been  gradually 
evolved  out  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  convictions  of  the 
civilized  world  as  the  necessity  of  their  existence  lias  been 
demonstrated  by  experience. 


80  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

He  recognized  five  sources  of  international  law,  as 
follows : 

1.  Decisions  of  prize  courts,  awards  of  courts  of  arbitratioTi, 
and  acts  of  international  congresses  and  conferences. 

2.  The  works  of  great  publicists,  who  perform  the  double 
function  of  verifying  the  existence  of  old  rules  and  of  creating 
new  ones. 

3.  Treaties  of  alliance,  peace,  commerce,  and  others,  defining, 
declaring,  or  modifying  preexisting  international  law. 

4.  Instructions  given  by  states  for  the  guidance  of  their  own 
courts  and  officers. 

5.  The  history  of  diplomatic  intercourse. 

Thus  far,  then,  and  no  farther  have  the  nations 
advanced  in  the  construction  of  the  laws  of  the  world. 
Out  of  the  nebulous  conditions  which  have  prevailed 
during  the  chaos  of  the  past,  there  have  arisen  certain 
nuclei  of  truth  which  prove  that  the  evolution  of  moral 
princif)les  is  in  progress  and  permit  the  prediction  — 
which  may  claim  the  title  of  "scientific,"  just  as  a  pre- 
diction of  a  solar  system  from  a  present  nebula  in  the 
heavens  may  claim  to  be  scientific  —  that  these  prin- 
ciples will,  in  time,  become  sharply  defined,  even  as  the 
matter  of  the  nebula  gathers  about  centers  and  bas 
plainly  defined  limits  in  planets  and  satellites.  But 
to-day  world  law  is  in  the  nebulous  stage ;  nobody  pro- 
mulgates it  with  authority ;  no  gathering  of  men  is 
authorized  to  add  a  word  to  it.  Every  nation  has  the 
technical  right  to  construe  it  according  to  its  pleasure 
or  to  deny  its  binding  force.  New  precedents  may  be 
established  at  any  time  by  sources  which  have  no  more 
authority  than  the  sources  which  have  existed  in  the 
past.    Yet  out  of  this  nebulosity  such  aggregations  of 


WOlM.l)   BUSINESS  NOW   PENDING  81 

truth  and  such  anirmations  of  liuman  rights  have  shaped 
themselves  that  the  entire  world  says :  "•  Something  is 
true ;  some  rights  exist ;  some  restraints  must  be  put 
upon  wrongdoing  ;  some  course  of  conduct  must  he 
observed."  That  is  the  world's  tribute  to  the  truth 
which  is  supreme  over  all  the  nations.  It  illustrates 
vividly  the  immediate  need  of  better  definition  of  world 
law  for  modern  conditions.  'Iliis  definition  can  be  greatly 
promoted  by  the  purposeful  and  intelligent  action  of 
men.  Therefore  there  is  need  that  a  world  legislature 
should  assemble  in  order  to  formulate  a  body  of  world 
law,  or  international  law,  for  the  observance  of  the 
nations.  It  is  time  that  more  authority  inhered  in 
international  law.  There  is  too  much  plausibility  in 
the  comment  of  the  St.  Petersburg  JVovosti,  speaking 
of  the  proposition  that  President  Roosevelt  call  a  second 
session  of  the  Hague  Conference,  that  "international 
law  is  a  polite  myth,  under  cover  of  which  the  strong- 
est nation  takes  what  it  wants  without  regard  for  its 
opponent's  rights  and  feelings ;  .  .  .  there  is  not  a 
tenet  in  the  so-called  code  which  has  not  been  broken 
whenever  it  suited  the  convenience  of  some  nation  to 
defy  it." 

In  logical  order  of  procedure  there  would  be  neces- 
sary, first  of  all,  in  submitting  to  a  body  of  interna- 
tional law,  a  formal  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  nations  as  a  whole  over  the  fragments  into  which 
mankind  is  separated  by  distinctions  of  race,  territory, 
and  class.  IJut  it  is  not  to  be  expected  with  the  pres- 
ent mutual  jealousy  among  nations  that  this  could  be 
secured.    The  nations  aie  not  yet  ready  to  recognize 


82  WOULD  ORGANIZATION 

the  truth,  and  they  are  very  far  from  having  the  enthu- 
siasm for  truth  which  will,  ui  time,  control  all  their 
relations.  But  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  the 
representatives  of  the  nations  would  agree  to  take  up 
the  work  of  codifying  the  international  law  of  the 
world  and  putting  it  into  such  a  form  that  there  should 
not  arise  such  serious  differences  over  its  intei-preta- 
tion  as  arose  at  the  outbreak  of  the  wiiv  between  Russia 
and  Japan.  For  one  sufiicient  subject,  therefore,  there 
is  plenty  of  work  neediiig  to  be  dune  at  once  by  the 
proposed  international  congress. 

Organization  of  the  world  into  one  political  body  is 
the  puipose  of  the  movement  for  a  regular  international 
congress.  It  has  seemed  to  many  men  to  be  premature  ; 
but  it  is  only  a  seeming,  when  measured  by  the  fact 
that  world  organization  has  already  actually  begun.  In 
the  case  of  tlie  Universal  Postal  Union,  the  entire  world 
has  actually  entered  into  organic  relation  and  has  taken 
organic  action.  It  has,  as  the  organized  world,  —  organ- 
ized to  the  extent  of  having  a  special  means  of  express- 
ing its  will  on  this  particular  subject,  —  said  that  it 
would  serve  itself  by  establishing  cheap  postage,  or 
means  of  communication.  Now  the  proposition  is  that 
so  much  other  world  business  is  pending  that  regular 
sessions  of  world  representatives  should  be  held. 

In  addition  to  the  pressing  need  of  a  code  of  world 
law,  which  shall  have  the  force  of  law  by  the  formal 
acceptance  of  all  the  nations,  there  is  a  large  number  of 
subjects  needing  immediate  /attention  because  of  their 
importance  to  the  nations  collectively.  At  the  pan- 
American  Congress  in  Mexico  a  long  list  of  these  was 


VVUUIJJ  liUSlNKSS  NOW   TENDING  83 

formulated,  and  they  relate  to  the  world  as  a  whole,  not 
to  the  two  Americas  only.  They  are  comini^  up  again, 
and  they  should  be  considered  in  their  world  bearing. 
The  need  of  uniform  custom-house  regulations  has  been 
summarized  as  follows: 

Uniformity  in  the  entrance,  discliargc,  and  clearance  of  shiiis  ; 
uniformity  and  ainipliiication  in  customs  rules  regarding  ships' 
manifests,  bills  of  lading,  consular  invoices,  and  declarations ; 
simplification  and  uniformity  in  custom-house  rulings  for  the 
inspection  of  merchandise  and  baggage ;  adequate  measures  for 
establishing  a  common  nomenclature  uf  products  and  merchan- 
dise; ...  a  uniform  system  of  declaration  of  goods,  for  shipping 
merchandise  through  any  of  the  countries  in  bond  .  .  .  and  for 
the  simplification  and  facilitation  of  mercantile  trafiic. 

The  world  needs  a  system  to  supersede  what  is  called 
"the  arbitrary  rulings  of  incompetent  or  dishonest  offi- 
cials "  and  to  secure  equal  treatment  everywhere.  The 
sessions  of  the  International  Customs  Congress  in  New 
York  city  in  January,  1903,  illustrate  the  practical 
need  of  world  customs  regulations  and  how  business 
men  are  already  moving  to  secure  them. 

International  copyright,  giving  to  authors  in  all  parts 
of  the  world  equal  protection  under  world  law,  is  wait- 
ing for  the  action  of  the  world  legislature.  International 
or  world  patents,  trade-marks,  and  the  like,  come  under 
the  same  head.  The  introduction  in  many  fields  of 
new  ideas,  to  quicken  the  progress  and  enhance  the 
profits  of  the  world,  would  be  promoted  by  world  legis- 
lation of  this  bort. 

It  is  not  long  since  the  assassination  of  President 
McKinley,  following  repeated  attempts,  successful  and 


84  ^\UUL1)   OllGAJS'lZATlON 

unsuccessful,  against  the  lives  of  European  rulers,  led 
to  a  loud  demand  fur  a  common  agreement  for  the  sup- 
pression of  this  class  of  crime.  The  subject  is  suited  to 
world  legislation. 

One  of  the  propositions  before  the  pan-American 
Congress  was  that  the  professional  standing  of  educated 
pei'sons,  certified  to  by  diplomas  of  educational  institu- 
tions, should  be  mutually  recognized  by  the  nations 
coming  into  the  agreement.  But  the  proposition  fits  the 
entire  world  more  obviously  than  it  fits  the  Americas 
alone.  World  citizenship  in  a  professional  way  could 
be  accorded  under  world  law,  and  the  world  would  be 
better  for  it  presuming  that  a  suitable  standard  would 
be  maintained. 

Two  international  sanitary  conferences  have  been  held 
already.  The  first  was  attended  by  representatives  of 
fifteen  nations,  tlie  second  by  representatives  of  nine- 
teen. World  sanitation  has  already  a  practical  bearing 
upon  the  health  of  all  mankind  for  the  prevention  of 
plagues  and  epidemics  of  any  sort  of  contagious  disease. 
Quarantine  regulations,  inspection  of  vehicles  of  trans- 
portation, whether  by  land  or  water,  supervision  of  the 
persons  of  immigrants,  the  healthfulness  of  ports,  etc., 
would  come  fitly  under  the  power  of  the  world  legislature. 

Another  proposal  before  the  congress  in  Mexico  which 
was  broad  enough  for  the  world  in  scope  was  that  there 
should  be  some  way  whereby  the  claims  of  a  citizen  of  one 
country  for  pecuniary  damages  due  to  the  fault  of  an- 
other country,  resulting  from  his  residence  in  the  foreign 
country,  might  have  some  regular  avenue  of  settlement. 
Such  claims  are  liable  to  arise  at  any  time.  The  United 


WOULD   BUSINESS   NOW   TKNDINO  85 

States  has  given  ground  repeatedly,  or  individual  states 
have,  for  the  preferment  of  claims  on  this  basis  by  citi- 
zens of  foreign  countries. 

World  coinage  is  another  sul)ject  which  seems  ready 
to  be  brought  before  the  representatives  of  the  world ; 
and  it  looks  as  if  the  meeting  would  not  be  ready  nearly 
as  soon  as  the  business  will  be.  About  two  years  ago 
the  Manchester  (England)  Statistical  Society  published 
and  circulated  a  pamphlet  on  an  international  gold  coin- 
age written  by  Charles  H.  Swan  of  Boston,  Mass.,  so 
important  did  these  business  men  of  world-wide  vision 
consider  it.  The  author  argues  that  the  time  has  come 
for  the  coinage  of  a  gold  piece  which  shall  serve  as  an 
international  unit  of  value  for  the  trade  of  the  world. 
Whether  his  particular  system  will  be  adopted  or  not,  it 
is  evident  that  a  world  coinage  is  coming,  demanded  by 
the  business  men  who  do  business  all  over  the  world. 
Weights  and  measures  are  likely  to  follow,  even  if  their 
coming  be  long  delayed  by  the  conservatism  of  local 
usage. 

But  there  is  a  larger  and  more  pressing  subject  of 
world  business,  which  promises  to  become  urgent  be- 
fore any  world  legislature  can  be  gathered  to  attend 
to  it ;  this  is  the  regulation  of  the  monopolies  which 
already  have  crossed  national  boundaries  and  surround 
the  globe.  Not  long  ago  a  press  dispatch  from  St.  Peters- 
burg announced  that  the  Standard  Oil  Company  had 
acquired  control  of  the  Russian  oil  combination.  Bank- 
ing corporations  have  been  proposed  whose  charters  gave 
them  practical  world  range.  The  trust  problem  has  not 
yet  been  solved  on  a  national  basis ;  and  yet  it  is  here 


86  WOULD   UUGANIZATION 

already  challenging  the  regulation  of  the  entire  world, 
if  the  world  is  to  escape.  A  recent  report  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  says : 

That  the  leading  traffic  officials  of  many  of  the  principal  rail- 
way lines,  men  occupying  high  positions  and  charged  with  the 
most  important  duties,  should  deliberately  violate  the  statute  law 
of  the  land,  and  in  some  cases  agree  with  each  other  to  do  so ; 
that  it  should  be  thought  by  them  necessary  to  destroy  vouchers 
and  to  so  manipulate  bookkeeping  as  to  obliterate  evidence  of 
the  transactions ;  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  should  be 
paid  in  unlawful  rebates  to  a  few  great  packing  houses  .  .  .  must 
be  surprising  and  offensive  to  all  right-minded  persons. 

Over  two  years  ago  a  press  dispatch  from  London 
said:  "  Details  of  an  important  move  by  Russia  .  .  .  have 
transpired  in  London.  This  move  is  no  less  than  a  pro- 
posal by  the  Imperial  government  for  an  international 
conference  to  deal  with  trusts."  What  became  of  that 
"  important  move  "  the  world  does  not  know,  —  and 
Russia  has  had  other  business  to  attend  to.  The  indica- 
tions in  this  country  do  not  point  to  any  cessation  of  the 
struggle  against  trusts,  but  rather  to  a  determination 
that  they  shall  be  regulated  and  made  subordinate  to 
public  welfare.  The  problem  is  already  world-wide  and 
it  promises  to  demand  attention  long  before  any  body 
of  representatives  of  the  nations  will  be  ready  to  deal 
with  it. 

New  questions  of  importance  to  the  nations  are  aris- 
ing frequently.  Those  above  mentioned,  some  of  which 
already  demand  attention,  cannot  be  considered  at  all 
adequately  to  the  welfare  of  the  world  because  there  is 
no   body  of  representatives  to  consider  them.     When, 


WORLD  BUSINESS  NOW  TENDING  87 


♦ 


therefore,  the  committee  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union 
asked  President  Roosevelt  to  call  a  second  session  of  the 
Hague  Conference  for  the  consideration,  in  part,  of  the 
establishment  of  a  regular  international  congress,  they 
spoke  for  the  entire  world  ;  and  the  entire  world  is  con- 
cerned that  such  a  body  shall  be  established  and  clothed 
with  all  necessary  power  as  speedily  as  possible. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  President 
(authorized  by  Congress,  if  the  step  be  necessary)  will 
make  a  definite  offer  to  the  nations,  in  calling  the  con- 
ference, to  waive  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  in 
favor  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  such  sovereignty 
as  we  have  hitherto  claimed  over  subjects  which  would 
properly  be  witliin  the  jurisdiction  of  world  legislation. 
Such  an  offer  would  be  warranted  by  the  precedent  of 
the  states  of  our  Union  in  surrendering  to  the  United 
States  certain  specific  matters,  reserving  all  unspecified 
matters  for  state  sovereignty.  Such  an  offer  would  go 
far  to  promote  friendly  action  on  the  part  of  other 
nations.  It  would  be  distinctly  in  line  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  unity  of  the  world  as  one  political  body.  It 
would  have  to  come,  in  any  event,  if  anything  were  to 
be  accomplished  practically;  and  it  would  be  especially 
fitting  that  the  great  American  republic,  the  proposer 
of  the  plan  and  the  leader  of  the  world  in  world 
organization,  should  take  a  generous  and  fraternal  step, 
as  well  as  show  far-sighted  statesmanship,  and  invite  the 
nations  to  follow  it  in  friendly  and  open-minded  effort 
to  secure  incomparable  world  prosperity  through  world 
organization  and  world  peace. 


CHAPTER   IX 
NATIONAL  CONSTITUTIONS 

Government,  stable,  just,  efficient,  is  the  greatest  pos- 
sible production  of  the  human  race,  far  surpassing  in  use- 
fulness any  achievement  in  material  things,  in  literature, 
in  science,  or  in  art.  Constitution-making  is  one  of  the 
highest  achievements  of  races,  as  it  is  among  the  loftiest 
aspirations  of  individuals.  But  whatever  earth's  sub- 
gods  may  have  made  in  the  way  of  wonderful  contrivances 
with  checks  and  balances,  we  must  always  live  and  act 
under  the  constitution  made  by  the  Creator  of  mankind. 
We  must  take  fundamental  facts  as  they  are  proved  to 
be,  and  shape  our  organic  and  our  individual  action 
according  to  them,  regardless  of  the  beauty  and  entice- 
ment of  our  theories  aside  from  the  facts. 

Admitting  the  fundamental  unity  of  mankind,  it  does 
not  follow  that,  if  the  nations  come  into  organic  rela- 
tions, they  must  all  have  identical,  or  even  similar, 
national  constitutions.  Each  will  be  part  of  the  organ- 
ized whole.  Each  may  have  a  function  toward  the 
whole  different  from  that  of  any  other.  But  even  if 
all  tend  toward  identity  of  constitution  and  methods 
of  political  activity,  the  organization  of  the  world  need 
not  wait  till  perfeation  of  national  constitutions  is 
realized. 

88 


NATIONAL  CONSTTTT  TTONS  89 

Nations  are  in  such  different  stages  of  development 
that  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  they  will  have,  for  cen- 
turies at  least,  identical  or  similar  national  constitutions. 
Yet  this  need  not  prevent  the  United  States,  Mexico, 
the  South  American  republics,  England,  France,  and  the 
other  nations,  as  far  and  as  fast  as  they  develop  organic 
government,  from  coming  into  equal  relations  with  the 
other  nations  in  a  world  legislature,  from  sharing  in  or 
being  eligible  by  representatives  to  tlie  world  judiciary, 
or  from  having  a  share  in  the  development  of  the  world 
executive.  It  is  no  reason  for  delay  in  the  organization 
of  the  world,  that  the  nations  are  not  all  upon  the  same 
plane,  or  have  not  identical  forms  of  national  constitution. 

Regarding  any  constitution  (and  it  may  be  permitted 
to  have  in  mind  particularly  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  since  that  is  the  nearest  to  us),  it  can 
never,  as  a  human  product,  be  sacred  or  be  so  exalted 
as  to  be  above  the  need  of  amendment ;  nor  should  it 
be  held  in  such  reverence  as  to  make  it  rigid  against 
the  demands  for  change  which  are  made  by  the  progress 
of  events.  Thus  the  constitution  is  not  to  be  idolized 
or  set  up  on  so  high  a  pinnacle  that  the  welfare  of  the 
nation  suffers.  On  the  other  hand,  just  as  far  as  any 
constitution  recognizes  and  rests  upon  the  real,  God- 
made  constitution  in  its  affirmation  of  the  equality  of 
all  men,  in  its  defense  of  the  rights  of  the  individual  on 
one  side  and  the  rights  of  the  organic  whole  on  the 
other,  it  is  sacred  and  is  entitled  to  full  reverence  and 
devoted  defense  by  its  friends.  Such  a  constitution  is 
always  progressive,  and  it  is  impossible  for  the  nation 
or  the  race  to  advance  beyond  it. 


90  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

National  constitutions,  so  far  as  the  future  can  be  fore- 
seen, must  practically  be  left  for  nations  to  settle  for 
themselves,  and  not  be  thrust  upon  them  by  world  power. 
If  any  race  can  by  heredity  or  training  produce  a  class 
or  family  fitted  for  ruling  the  nation  permanently  better 
than  it  can  be  ruled  by  the  people  themselves,  then  the 
people  will  do  well  to  submit  to  their  wise  rulers.  lUit 
if  any  people  is  sure  that  it  is  wiser  than  any  class  or 
family  in  the  management  of  national  affairs,  then  it  is 
for  that  people  to  asseil  its  riglits ;  and  the  history  of 
nations  proves  that  the  martyr  spirit  will  not  be  lacking 
so  long  as  despots  sit  upon  thrones.  But  the  internal 
affairs  of  nations  need  not  conflict  with  their  status  in 
the  organized  whole  unless  internal  dissension  is  so 
severe  as  to  disturb  the  entire  world  body  politic  and 
demand  action  by  the  whole  for  the  welfare  of  the 
whole. 

In  the  very  nature  of  the  evolution  of  the  world 
organism  out  of  tlie  disjointed  fragments  which  have 
hitherto  existed,  there  must  be  a  steady  development  of 
centralization.  It  has  been  rightly  and  necessarily  so  in 
the  history  of  the  United  States ;  and  it  is  not  a  cause 
of  alarm,  but  rather  a  phase  of  natural  and  inevitable 
growth,  that  the  national  government  of  the  United 
States  is  developing  certain  centralizing  tendencies.  The 
central  organ  of  thought  and  action  must  take  cognizance 
of  what  is  for  the  national  well-being.  The  real  consti- 
tution,—  the  order  of  things  established  by  the  Creator, 
—  must  be  the  standard  of  action,  not  the  written 
ideas  of  men,  however  able,  who  lived  when  the  full 
scope  of   national  life   could   not  possibly   have   been 


NATIONAL  CONSTITUTIONS  91 

anticipated  correctly.  Wonderful  as  are  the  generaliza- 
tions of  principles  by  the  constitution  makers,  yet  wher- 
ever their  ideas  fail  to  correspond  to  the  truth  as  it  has 
since  been  developed  it  is  only  loyalty  to  their  spirit 
and  to  their  purpose  to  depart  froni  their  forms.  But 
the  centralizing-  force  which  causes  suffering-  or  lack  of 
proper  development  in  any  part  thereby  proclaims  its 
own  error,  and  the  right  of  local  self-government  is  the 
right  to  exemption  from  ills  caused  by  ignorant  or  des- 
potic central  authority.  The  right  of  revolution  is  the 
right  of  rectification,  not  the  right  of  destruction  ;  and 
in  the  progress  of  events,  by  the  establishment  of 
national  courts,  by  the  world  court  of  arbitration,  and 
by  the  substitution  of  reason  for  force,  the  settlement 
of  local  and  national  difficulties  without  revolutions 
becomes  increasingly  probable. 

Taking  the  United  States  as  an  illustration  of  the  way 
in  which  the  nations  may  come  into  a  world  organism, 
there  is  to  be  expected  a  development  of  increasing 
central  authority,  —  a  growth  of  central  administra- 
tion into  a  central  legislature,  executive,  and  court,  — 
but  all  for  the  satisfaction  of  human  needs  and  for  the 
attainment  of  justice  to  the  nations,  to  localities,  and 
to  persons.  Local  jealousy  is  more  likely  to  retard  the 
organization  of  the  world  than  is  haste  for  world  benefits 
to  promote  the  movement  too  rapidly.  National  con- 
stitutions, national  institutions,  and  national  rights  may 
all  be  guarded  and  perpetuated,  and  yet  the  nations  may 
come  without  delay  into  their  fitting  relations  as  one 
body  politic  of  all  mankind. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES 

The  proposition  to  organize  the  world  provokes  the 
challenge  whether  the  time  is  ripe  for  it.  The  answer 
is  that  events  are  already  moving  toward  organization 
faster  than  is  admitted  by  many  men.  Certain  forces 
which  affect  the  result  are  not  under  human  control, 
others  are.  Nations  and  races  rise  and  fall.  In  part 
their  fate  is  connected  with  their  political  system  or 
lack  of  system.  Their  form  of  government  is  such  that 
permanent  race-power  is  impossible.  War,  disease,  and 
decay  due  to  political  conditions  carry  off  races,  when 
it  seems  as  if  the  physical  force  in  their  stocks  would 
have  carried  them  through  their  perils,  had  their  gov- 
ernment been  fitted  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  people. 
In  other  instances  it  seems  as  if  there  were  a  running- 
out  of  the  race  stock  just  as  there  is  a  running-out  of 
stocks  in  animal  and  vegetable  life.  Ancient  stocks  of 
people  have  disappeared.  Not  only  have  the  great 
empires  of  antiquity  gone  down  with  all  their  imperfec- 
tions, but  entire  race  stocks  have  been  lost,  as  is  proved 
from  the  remains  of  early  tribes  and  the  recent  decay  in 
races  in  tlie  islands  of  the  sea. 

Modern  history,  in  the  cases  of  prominent  races,  seems 
to  demonstrate  that  there  is  a  period  of  race  expansion, 
—  of  great  vigor  of  stock,  rapid  enlargement  in  numbers, 

92 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  93 

and  strong  mental  activity,  —  followed  by  culmination 
of  power,  and  then  by  subsidence  of  the  virility  of 
the  race.  Then  some  other  race,  in  its  turn,  comes  for- 
ward as  a  new  factor  in  world  affairs.  A  frequent  illus- 
tration is  Spain,  comparing  her  strength  tlu'ee  hundred 
years  ago  with  her  weakness  to-day.  We  see  France 
luider  Napoleon  compared  with  the  relative  position  of 
France  to-day  among  the  nations.  We  see  the  rapid 
expansion  of  the  Slav  race  and  we  hear  many  expressions 
of  apprehension  for  the  future  of  Europe  and  of  Asia 
when  the  Slav  shall  have  come  to  his  full  power. 

Some  optimists  of  their  race  predict  Anglo-Saxon 
domination  of  the  earth,  seeing  that  that  race  is  supreme 
in  England,  in  the  United  States,  in  Canada,  and  in 
Australia.  But  the  AnHo-Saxon  stock  is  sufferinsf  a 
serious  decline  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States 
already,  and  politically  and  commercially  it  is  fast 
losing  its  relative  supremacy  in  some  places.  England 
has  recently  been  deeply  disturbed  over  the  possibility 
that  the  British  race  has  reached  its  physical  culmina- 
tion and  entered  upon  its  irreversi])le  decline.  Debates 
in  the  House  of  Lords  over  the  inferior  physique  of  the 
men  who  offer  themselves  for  enlistment  show  the 
alarm  which  is  felt.  England's  birth  rate  is  declining 
steadily.  If  the  rate  between  1881  and  1891  had  been 
continued  to  1901,  it  is  estimated  that  there  would 
have  been  in  1901  the  enormous  number  of  2,092,000 
more  children  under  fifteen  years  than  there  actuall}' 
were.  Statistics  are  given  from  Australia  to  show  that 
in  1891  the  birth  rate  in  that  country  was  276  for  10,000 
persons  and  that  in  1901  it  had  fallen  to  239.    In  New 


94 


WORLD  ORGANIZATIOiSr 


South  Wales  in  1881  it  was  336.3,  and  in  1901  it  was 
only  235.3.  If  the  birth  rate  had  continued  as  high  in 
Australia  as  it  was  in  1891,  there  would  be  20,000 
more  births  in  a  year  than  now. 

Very  recent  figures  from  South  Africa,  where  the 
white  man  finds  it  easy  to  support  himself,  show  that 
the  relative  increase  of  the  black  race  has  been  enor- 
mous and  that  the  disproportion  of  the  races  is  rapidly 
increasing.  Evidently  it  is  quite  possible  that  black 
supremacy  will  forever^jrevent  the  southern  part  of  the 
continent,  as  well  as  the  central,  from  becoming  a  white 
man's  country. 

It  is  becoming  recognized  that  no  race  can  thrive  in 
all  parts  of  the  earth.  Large  portions  of  the  tropics 
seem  to  be  closed  forever  to  the  white  races  as  a  per- 
manent habitat  where  they  can  take  root  and  thrive. 
English  experience  in  India,  where  white  families  of 
children  cannot  be  reared,  illustrates  a  truth  which 
holds  not  only  for  tliat  country,  but  for  the  entire 
southern  part  of  Asia,  and  also  the  Philippines  and  all 
the  expanse  of  islands  to  the  west,  north,  and  northeast 
of  Australia.  The  whole  of  central  Africa  seems  to  be 
forbidden  to  the  white  races  as  a  field  for  race  expan- 
sion, and  the  tropical  regions  of  America  give  no  proof 
yet  that  they  will  fall  under  the  dominance  of  purely 
white  peoples.  What  will  occur  in  South  America  from 
unions  of  races  remains  to  be  seen,  for  there  are  excep- 
tions to  the  general  proposition  that  half-breeds  combine 
the  vices  and  lack  the  virtues  of  the  races  of  their  parents. 
The  Chileans  are  mentioned  as  an  exceptional  instance 
of  improvement  upon  the  Spanish  and  Indian  stocks. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  95 

Race  types  are  obliterated  in  some  instances.  Dr. 
Maurice  Fishberg,  medical  examiner  of  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities  in  New  York,  is  quoted  to  the  effect, 
basing  his  conclusions  upon  personal  examinations  of 
over  3000  Jews,  that  only  6  per  cent  of  them  have 
hooked  noses.  The  straight  noses  number  68  per  cent, 
the  broad  noses  12  per  cent,  and  the  retrousse  14  per 
cent.    The  distinct  iew  type  is  disappearing. 

Census  returns  in  Massachusetts  prove  what  is  doubt- 
less a  general  truth  for  every  state  in  our  Union,  —  that 
there  is  a  slow  but  increasing  tendency  of  races  here 
to  intermarry.  In  the  main,  the  great  currents  of  i-ace 
blood  flow  along  side  by  side ;  but  there  is  a  constant 
increase  of  the  mingling  at  the  edges,  so  that  the  per- 
centage of  mixture  of  6.17  per  cent  by  the  census  of 
1885  had  increased  to  8.13  per  cent  by  the  census  of 
1895. 

So  it  is  a  fair  conclusion  from  the  facts  recorded  in 
history  and  from  observations  of  our  own  times  that 
race  types  have  their  rise  and  fall  and  that  they  are 
being  constantly  modified  by  intermariiages  and  by 
changes  of  residence.  Race-mixing  is  in  progress  on  a 
large  scale  all  over  the  world  and  change  of  habitat  is 
becoming  increasingly  frequent.  Profit,  pleasure,  neces- 
sity, larger  liberty,  or  fancy  have  already  caused  a 
material  migration  of  individuals  of  many  races  to 
other  homes  than  the  home  of  the  race.  They  are  liv- 
ing in  foreign  lands  by  the  hundred  thousand,  —  in  our 
own  country  by  the  ten  million.  Census  statistics  do 
not  yet  answer  the  question  how  many  persons  born 
in  a  certain   country  are  living  abroad  ;    but  they  do 


96 


WORLD  ORGANIZATION 


undertake  to  answer  the  question,  for  the  several  coun- 
tries, how  many  of  the  residents  are  foreigners. 

In  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics  for  1899  are 
given  the  following  numbers  of  foreigners  living  in  the 
countries  named  for  eveiy  1000  of  population:  United 
Kingdom,  4  ;  France,  29;  Germany,  6;  Austria,  16  ; 
Hungary,  15  ;  Italy,  2  ;  Spain,  3  ;  Sweden,  4 ;  Nor- 
Avay,  20;  Denmark,  32;  Holland,  17;  Belgium,  26; 
Switzerland,  74;  Servia,  21;  Greece,  19;  the  United 
States,  133.  In  the  Statesman  s  Year  Book  for  1905  the 
returns  are  sufficiently  definite  to  afford  an  idea  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  mixing  of  the  races  is  in  progress. 
The  following  table  shows  the  most  important  countries : 


Country 

Date  of  census 

Total  population 

Foreigners 

Argentina    . 

1003 

5,160,986  (est.) 

886,395  (1895) 

Austria  . 

1900 

26,150,708 

496,221 

Hungary 

1900 

19,254,559 

245,544 

Belgium 

1900 

6,693,548 

206,061 

Chile .     .     . 

1895 

2,712,145 

72,812 

China      .      . 

.     "  Latest " 

426,337,300 

20,404 

( 

in  open  ports  in  1903) 

France    .     . 

1901 

38,961,945 

1,037,778 

Germany     . 

1900 

56,367,178 

778,698     ■ 

Italy  .     .     . 

1901 

32,475,253 

61,606 

Japan  ^    .     . 

1900 

44,805,937 

13,709  (1903) 

Mexico    .     . 

1900 

13,605,919 

57,507 

Netherlands 

1902 

5,430,981 

52,625  (1899) 

Portugal 

1900 

5,423,132 

41,728 
'    315,195 

Russia     .     . 

1903 

141,000,000 

J     (going  in) 
'     263,670 

.  (coming  out) 

Servia     .     . 

1900 

2,492,882 

24,280 

1  December  31, 1903,  Japanese  inforeigncountriesnumberedl53,785. 


THE  SUrREMACY  OF  RACES  97 


Country  Date  of  census        Total  population  Foreigners 


Spain       .      . 
Sweden  .     . 
Norway  . 
Switzerland 
United  States 


1900  18,618,080  42,395  (1887) 

1900  5,136,441  24,548  (1890) 

1900  2,240,032  59,315 

1900  3,325,024  229,050  (1888) 

1900  76,303,387  10,356,644 

(13.6  per  cent) 


Here  is  a  vast  number  of  people  in  the  aggregate, 
though  not  a  hirge  percentage  of  tlie  people  of  the 
nations  named.  Here  are  enough  to  prove  that  a  great 
mix-up  is  in  progress  in  spite  of  the  many  obstacles  to 
travel  and  of  the  many  ties  which  hold  people  to  their 
homes.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  process 
will  increase  as  the  enterprise  and  restlessness  of  men 
compel  them  to  seek  new  fields. 

Another  point  of  large  importance  bearing  upon  the 
assimilation  of  the  races  is  that  nations  have  been 
forced  to  change  their  views  regarding  the  permanence 
of  allegiance  of  citizens  or  subjects  to  their  governments 
or  rulers.  "  Once  an  Englishman,  always  an  English- 
man," was  formerly  the  doctrine  of  our  mother  country  ; 
and  the  issue  between  that  doctrine  and  that  of  the 
United  States,  —  that  citizenship  could  be  changed  from 
one  country  to  another,  —  came  to  a  sharp  and  bloody 
decision  in  the  war  of  1812.  That  a  man  cannot  take 
himself  out  of  the  citizenship  of  his  native  land  and 
become  a  citizen  of  another  nation  is  a  decaying  doc- 
trine, and  the  progress  of  years  is  rapidly  making  it 
obsolete.  Beeides  our  own  country  Great  Britain, 
France,  Germany,  Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Nor- 
way,  Sweden,   and  Switzerland  recognize  the  right  of 


98  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

expatriation.  Russia  still  denies  it  and  in  the  case  of  Tur- 
key the  special  consent  of  the  government  is  necessary. 

Thus  far  in  human  history  brute  force  has  been 
supreme.  International  law  to-day  rests  ultimately  upon 
might.  Nations  conquer  other  nations  and  the  civilized 
powers  recognize  results  regardless  of  the  right  or 
wi'ong  whereby  the  result  was  attained.  "  Accom- 
plished facts  "  have  wonderful  potency  with  the  states- 
men who  settle  the  status  of  nations  in  the  family  of 
nations  of  the  world. 

In  view  of  the  present  tendency  toward  peace  and 
arbitration  it  is  a  fair  question  whether  the  national 
dinosaurs  and  megatheriums,  the  great  fighting  crea- 
tures of  the  past,  are  to  be  perpetuated  as  the  best  kind 
of  flocks  and  herds  to  raise,  or  whether  it  is  time  to 
develop  and  protect  the  more  peaceful  races  and  to 
restrain  those  which  have  lived  hithei'to  by  plunder  and 
bloodshed.  Shall  the  supremacy  of  races  depend,  as 
heretofore,  solely  upon  their  military  ability,  reenforced 
by  such  intellectual  powers  as  can  be  made  to  increase 
the  fighting  strength  of  the  nation?  We  turn  to  the 
resolutions  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  and  see 
what  they  involve. 

World  organization,  incidentally  securing  world  peace, 
is  the  reasonable  outcome  of  the  establishment  of  a  per- 
manent legislative  body  for  the  world.  But  with  the 
establishment  of  a  world  legislature  will  go  the  pro- 
motion of,  or  the  securing  of,  the  establishment  of  per- 
manent boundaries  of  tlie  nations.  The  tendency,  as  is 
already  illustrated  by  the  jealousies  of  the  European 
nations,  will  be   to   insist  that  great  nations  restrain 


THE  SUPREMACY   OF   RACKS  99 

tliem«elves  within  their  houiulaiies,  while  these  same 
jealousies  will  be  the  protection  of  the  boundaries  of 
the  small  nations. 

But,  regarding  the  supremacy  of  races  in  the  clash 
and  confusion  of  the  world,  the  pertinent  question  here 
is  whether  the  progress  of  the  world  can  be  secured 
with  fixed  boundaries  for  the  several  nations,  or  whether 
there  is  a  mighty  force  inherent  in  an  advancing  and 
expanding  race,  which  will,  like  a  Hood,  swee[)  away 
all  barriers  erected  artificially  by  men  and  will  assert 
again  and  again  the  brute  force  of  the  past  and  make 
it  supreme  over  all  agreements  for  peace,  even  if  those 
agreements  are  supported  by  the  positive  expression  of 
the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  nations  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Is  the  world  after  all  tied  down  forever  to  the 
supremacy  of  brute  force,  overthrowing  all  considerations 
of  right,  justice,  peace,  and  humanity,  so  that  by  some 
secret  but  hiexorable  law  progress  must  always  be  accom- 
panied by  the  blood  and  tears  of  the  weak,  falling  under 
the  sword  and  the  despotism  of  the  strong? 

We  are  forced  to  accept  the  doctrine  that  there  is  a 
rise  and  decline  of  the  virility  of  races  ;  this  condition 
will  continue  superior  to  all  agreements  of  nations.  The 
problem,  therefore,  is  whether  full  opportunity  can  be 
made  for  the  expansion  of  races  with  the  preservation 
of  the  peace  of  the  world,  with  the  preservation  of  the 
rights  of  the  individuals  who  belong  to  the  decaying 
races,  and  without  the  loss  to  the  world  of  thg  full  bene- 
fit of  the  elasticity,  vigor,  and  superabundant  life  which 
inhere  in  races  which  are  advaucmg  to  the  zenith  of 
their  strength. 


100  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Nations  spread  and  carry  their  institutions  with  them. 
The  conquests  of  Russia  have  been  marked  by  the 
Russianization  of  the  nations  which  have  been  con- 
quered or  absorbed  without  the  preliminary  of  subjuga- 
tion by  arms.  The  hapless  fate  of  Finland,  whose 
institutions  are  being  smothered  by  the  heartless  might 
of^  Russia  in  order  that  Russian  ways  may  be  forced 
upon  the  unwilling,  recalcitrant,  but  helpless  people,  is 
the  latest  and  most  pertinent  illustration  of  the  exten- 
sion of  race  institutions  by  the  might  of  the  strong. 
History  is  full  of  these  instances,  and  the  progress  of 
the  Teuton  in  England  and  in  America  furnishes  its 
ample  share  of  proof  of  the  practice  hitherto  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 

But  races  migrate  and  nations  send  out  swarms  of 
their  surplus  population  without  forcing  their  institu- 
tions, their  language,  and  their  customs  upon  the  people 
to  whom  they  go.  Though  Boston  is  an  Irish  city  and  for 
a  score  of  years  has  been  governed  by  the  Irish  people, 
the  Irish  language  is  not  the  ofhcial  speech,  the  Roman 
Catholic  is  not  the  state  religion,  nor  has  the  English 
foundation  for  court  procedure  been  overthrown.  Pil- 
grim and  Puritan  are  held  in  increasing  honor,  as  the 
years  go  by,  among  the  people  of  diverse  races  who 
comprise  the  population  of  the  city.  Germany  has  sent 
to  the  United  States  during  the  last  generation  swarms 
from  her  overflowing  population,  yet  they  are  not  here 
conquering  a  corner  of  the  country  for  Germany,  nor 
are  they  plotting  to  overthrow  our  government  and, 
like  Greeks  in  the  midst  of  Troy,  to  deliver  us  into  the 
hands  of  their  fatherland.    The  leading  South  American 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  101 

nations  receive  large  numbers  of  European  immigrants, 
yet  their  national  stability  increases  without  any  effort 
on  the  part  of  those  settlers  to  effect  the  military  con- 
quest of  their  adopted  countries.  The  table  given  above 
illustrates  how  nations  or  races  send  out  from  the  home 
hive  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  pure  stock,  with 
the  training  of  the  mother  countr}'  in  institutions,  lan- 
guage, and  religion,  and  yet  tliere  is  no  thought  and  no 
need  of  the  political  conquest  of  the  peoples  to  whose 
land  they  migrate  in  order  that  they  may  find  larger 
room  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

But  may  not  the  race  spirit  under  stress  of  national 
enthusiasm  prove  resistless,  breaking  down  all  barriers 
in  the  shape  of  a  foreign  language,  religion,  customs, 
and  form  of  government?  It  has  been  so  in  the  past ; 
but  it  is  well  to  lemember  once  more  that  we  are  in  a 
new  age  of  the  world.  Two  mighty  forces  impel  to  the 
movements  of  races,  and  it  is  needless  here  to  decide 
which  is  the  more  powerful.  One  is  the  desire  of  gain, 
the  other  is  religious  enthusiasm.  In  modern  times  the 
latter  burns  less  fiercely  than  in  the  days  of  Mohammed 
or  of  the  Crusades,  and  it  is  not  probable  that  a  corrupt 
faith  will  again  stir  the  spirit  of  conquest  for  the  sake 
of  religious  propagandism.  The  other  motive,  the  desire 
of  gain,  still  stands  as  the  mainspring  of  commercial 
activity,  softened,  we  surely  hope,  in  many  cases  into 
nothing  worse  than  a  desire  for  legitimate  profit.  Now 
both  of  these  motives,  under  modern  conditions,  can  be 
satisfied  and  are  being  satisfied  without  involving  the 
conquest  of  one  nation  by  another  for  their  full  opera- 
tion.   Freedom  to   hold  whatever   religious  belief  one 


102  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

pleases  is  already  a  privilege  or  right  in  most  of  the 
nations,  and  so  powerful  is  the  tendency  of  the  times 
that  it  does  not  seem  possible  for  the  current  to  set  in 
the  other  direction.  Religious  toleration  is  complete 
in  the  United  States  and  in  some  European  countries. 
In  England,  it  is  true,  there  is  still  a  certain  kind  of 
religious  persecution  at  present  under  the  Established 
Church  ;  but  there  is  no  possible  doubt  that  the  nation 
will  go  on  to  a  larger  degree  of  liberty.  State  churches 
and  established  religions  are  still  the  rule  in  most  of 
the  nations;  but  the  advance  of  mankind  is  steadily 
toward  greater  liberty,  and  no  race  is  to-day  under  the 
necessity  of  conquering  another  in  oider  that  its  mem- 
bers may  have  liberty  to  hold  in  the  other  whatever  form 
of  religion  they  choose,  provided  they  live  a  decent  life 
and  observe  a  tolerable  form  t)f  morality.  The  religious 
element  as  a  cause  of  wars  of  conquest  and  expansion 
can  to-day  be  completely  eliminated  from  the  internal 
impulses  which  force  nations  to  overrun  their  neighbors. 

With  freedom  of  conscience  secured,  wherever  there 
is  within  one  nation  a  gioup  of  people  from  another 
nation  that  group  can  worship  as  it  pleases,  whether  it 
be  Christian,  Jew,  Mohammedan,  Buddhist,  or  idolater, 
provided  the  life  and  property  of  the  resident  popula- 
tion is  regarded  and  a  tolerable  standard  of  morality  is 
observed. 

Groups  of  individuals  being  thus  located,  there  is 
freedom  to  trade,  under  the  privileges  now  generally 
accorded  by  one  nation  to  the  immigrants  of  another. 
It  is  true  that  in  certain  states  of  the  United  States 
in  which  deep  prejudice  exists  against  certain  types  of 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  103 

foreigners  there  are  laws  discriminating  against  foreign 
labor,  and  we  have  a  national  exclusion  law,  but,  in  the 
main,  it  is  true  of  the  nations  that  foreigners  can  work 
and  trade  with  more  or  less  freedom,  can  make  a  toler- 
able living,  can  enjoy  their  religion,  and  can  at  least 
have  opportunity  to  decide  whether  they  can  live  more 
comfortably  than  in  their  home  country  under  the  more 
or  less  onerous  conditions  which  exist  there.  Unfortu- 
nate exceptions  can,  it  is  true,  be  cited  to  this  general 
statement;  but  the  progress  of  the  nations  is  steadily 
toward  larger  liberty. 

For  the  sake  of  trade,  therefore,  it  is  not  necessary, 
in  modern  times,  that  one  nation  shall  conquer  another. 
The  nearest  demonstration  of  the  contrary,  plausible 
to  some  minds,  is  the  case  of  Cliina  in  her  relation  to 
other  nations ;  but  the  united  influence  of  the  Powers 
which  she  regards  as  barbarian  seems  certain  to  induce 
her  to  concede  the  open  door,  and  the  issue  is  raised  in 
connection  with  no  other  nation.  Japan  opened  her  door 
many  years  ago  and  her  example  is  conclusive  proof  of 
the  l)enefit  of  admitting  such  foreign  influence  as  finds 
it  profitable  to  enter,  provided  the  integrity  of  the  terri- 
tory and  the  autonomy  of  the  people  are  maintained. 

Conquest  for  the  establishment  of  political  principles 
is  possible  but  not  prol)able.  Money  or  religion  may 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  an  empire.  Men  may  flee  to 
a  wilderness  to  set  up  under  political  jirotection  new 
religious  privileges,  powers,  and  opportunities.  Thus 
did  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  amid  the  snows  of  Plymouth. 
But  conquest  for  the  sake  of  imposing  political  forms 
upon  weaker  races  as  a  matter  of  pure  pliilanthropy  is 


104  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

in  such  contrast  with  the  occurrences  of  the  times  that 
it  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  a  possible  cause  for  the 
necessary  expansion  of  a  race. 

The  despotisms  of  the  world  are  so  jealous  of  each 
other  that  any  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  world  by 
one  of  them  for  the  sake  of  enlarging  the  scope  of  its 
political  institutions  would  be  resisted  by  a  combination 
of  the  others.  Besides,  in  these  despotisms  there  is  a 
sharp  cleavage  between  the  powers  and  the  subjects. 
The  subjects,  acting  under  the  impulse  of  race  expan- 
sion or  of  the  desire  to  escape  from  tyranny,  in  leaving 
the  home  hive  naturally  make  their  new  home  in  a  land 
of  greater  freedom  ;  and  a  true  democracy,  founded  upon 
liberty,  cannot  be  a  nation  desiring  or  practicing  the 
conquest  of  other  nations  for  the  spread  of  its  political 
institutions.  As  soon  as  it  assumes  this  character  it 
denies  its  fundamental  principle,  becomes  a  despotism, 
and  surely  sows  tlie  seeds  of  its  own  decay.  If  this  is 
to  be  the  end  of  democracies,  then  world  legislation  and 
world  organization  and  world  progress  of  any  permanent 
sort  are  out  of  the  question,  and  humanity  is  in  a  cease- 
less round  of  changes  without  permanent  progress.  But 
democracies  foster  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  braves 
martyrdom  for  the  perpetuation  of  human  rights  ;  and 
therefore  upon  this  chief  reliance  those  democracies  rest 
which  pro{)Ose  and  which  promote  the  organization  of 
the  world  and  tlie  security  of  world  peace. 

Limitation  of  national  boundaries,  then,  as  a  con- 
comitant of  world  organization  is  not  likely  to  be  over- 
thrown by  any  resistless  force  in  the  inherent  nature 
of  the  races,  sweeping  away  all  barriers  erected  by  the 


f 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  105 

organization  of  the  world  as  one  political  body,  but 
those  boundaries  will  become  fixed.  Stability  and 
security  will  be  assured  to  great  and  small  alike.  Race 
expansion  will  have  ample  room  and  the  declining  and 
the  adolescent  races  can  have  equal  justice  and  equal 
opportunity  to  contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems which  will  surely  continue  to  beset  men  and 
races  as  long  as  men's  imperfections  inflict  evil  upon 
the  world. 

It  may  be  true  that  a  widely  expanded  race  in  its 
declining  stage  may  still  have  sufficient  power  to  con- 
quer by  military  force  the  budding  career  of  a  compar- 
atively feeble  people.  Under  the  brute  regime  such 
weak  race  would  be  crushed  in  its  infancy,  and  the 
world  would  lose  what  might  otherwise  develop  to  be 
of  large  worth.  Doubtless  many  instances  have  occurred 
in  which  beneficent  peoples  have  been  crushed  by  grossly 
corrupt  despotisms  and  the  progress  of  the  world  has 
been  delayed.  Mankind  is  poorer,  our  advance  is  less 
than  it  would  have  been  had  the  early  purity  of  race 
force  been  protected  and  brought  to  its  full  powers. 
Under  the  peace  which  world  organization  will  secure 
everywhere  all  the  small  nations  and  all  the  weak  races 
whether  advancing  or  declining  will  have  the  protection 
due  to  their  existence  as  members  of  the  human  family, 
and  each  will  follow  the  law  of  nature  inherent  in  its 
members.  Declining  race  vigor  will  continue  to  work 
its  doom,  but  peacefully,  if  it  be  not  arrested  by  inter- 
mixture with  other  stocks,  while  each  advancing  race 
will  bring  to  the  world  the  full  and  rich  benefit  of  its 
young  strength. 


106  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

If  the  expanding  race  be  one  of  the  greatest  now 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  still  there  would  he  no 
excuse  for  military  conquest  or  for  annexation  of  adja- 
cent territories  to  the  overloading  of  the  country's 
capacity  for  efficient  internal  administration,  because  of 
the  complexity  and  gravity  of  the  burdens  of  the  whole. 
Internal  local  soundness  is  an  indispensable  condition 
for  the  health  of  the  entire  body.  With  world  organi- 
zation full  opportunity  would  exist  for  the  ventures 
of  the  active  l)usiness  ijien  in  any  and  every  country 
whatever.  Conunercial  enterprise  would  have  full  vent. 
Rewards  could  be  earned  in  whatever  country  nature 
had  been  most  liberal  with  the  gifts  most  suited  to  the 
personal  temperament  of  the  adventurer  and  the  capi- 
talist, whether  cotton  or  gold  or  wheat  or  lumber  or 
manufactures  or  anything  whatsoever.  With  race  vigor 
everywhere  finding  ample  opportunity  there  would  fol- 
low in  all  parts  of  the  world  a  vast  improvement  of 
cosmopolitan  conditions.  Tlie  nations  which  offered  the 
largest  opportunity  for  the  full  operation  of  business 
enterprises  would  share  to  the  largest  amount  the  pros- 
perity brought  to  them  by  the  members  of  the  most 
vioorous  races.  ComDctition  between  nations  would  set 
in  to  secure  the  largest  possible  immigration  of  the 
thrifty  and  industrious  young  race,  just  as  in  the  United 
States  cities  and  towns  compete  for  the  establishment 
of  large  plants  for  new  kinds  of  business.  Narrow  and 
secluded  nations,  backward  and  slow,  Avould  be  forced 
by  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  to  take  a  new  depar- 
ture, and  the  world  spirit  would  surely  sweep  them  along 
with  the  others,  even  tliough  in  less  degree.    Chinese 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  RACES  107 

policy  and  Chinese  walls  belong  already  to  the  ages 
away  from  which  the  world  has  resolutely  set  its  face. 

The  effect,  therefore,  of  world  organization,  with  con- 
sequent world  peace,  would  be  to  promote  larger  liberty 
for  the  individual  and  for  trade  and  commerce  in  coun- 
tries where  now  there  are  great  restrictions.  Inevitably 
there  would  follow  greater  liberty  of  personal  action, 
greater  encouragement  of  enterprise,  greater  rewards 
for  labor  and  capital,  and  far  more  rapid  advance  in  the 
wealth  of  the  world.  Business  competition  would  drive 
the  conservative  and  narrow  and  distrustful  nations  into 
this  policy.  The  world  would  see  a  quickening  such  as 
it  has  never  yet  dreamed  of  and  the  most  progressive 
people  would  find  full  opportunity  for  all  their  genius. 
Would  it  then  be  conceivable  that  they  should  turn 
about  and  say  that  they  must  kill  off  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  other  people,  at  enormous  material  loss,  in  order 
to  have  free  scope  for  race  spirit  or  race  institutions? 
Any  race  which  should  attempt  so  to  do  would  surely 
be  repressed  by  the  other  races  and  it  would  earn  and 
deserve  the  enmity  of  the  world.  The  absurdity  of  the 
proposition  would  be  evident  as  soon  as  any  foolish 
provincial  should  state  it. 

With  the  security  of  peace  guaranteeing  the  promo- 
tion of  industry  and  of  commerce,  the  assimilation  of 
the  peoples  of  the  world  would  proceed  faster  than  is 
possible  with  insecurity  and  jealousy  between  races,  to 
say  nothing  of  war.  Race  types  would  tend  to  amal- 
gamation in  the  great  cities,  as  people  of  every  race 
made  their  abodes  there,  and  these  elements  would  bring 
to  the  common  stock  the  peculiar  race  aptitude  for  any 


108  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

kind  of  excellence.  Genius  for  trade,  for  invention,  for 
agriculture,  for  manufactures,  for  architecture,  for  paint- 
ing, for  scul^Jture,  for  music,  for  literature,  for  educa- 
tion, for  law,  for  the  drama,  for  philosophy,  for  theology, 

—  genius  for  any  and  every  kind  of  thought  and  action 
which  makes  for  the  progress  of  mankind,  for  the  con- 
trol of  the  physical  world,  and  for  advance  into  the  field 
of  mind  and  of  spirit  would  all  have  full  opportunity 
for  exercise  and  would  contribute  to  the  general  progress. 
Race  supremacy  would  not  be  measured  by  the  unit  of 
brute  force,  but  different  races  would  have  supremacy 
in  different  fields.  Not  one  standard  but  many  would 
be  operative,  the  world  recognizing  the  truth  that  men 
have  complex  natures  and  that  there  is  in  them  other 
ability  than  that  of  killing  their  brethren.  Each  race 
would  surpass  in  its  specialties  and  each  would  con- 
tribute the  excellence  it  had  attained  in  its  specialties 
to  the  common  good  of  the  whole,  until  the  possessions 
and  achievements  of  all  races  combined  would  far  sur- 
pass anything  which  the  world  has  yet  attained. 

Such  would  be  the  sure  outcome  of  peace  and  of  race 
assimilation,  unless  internal  dissensions-  or  personal  vice 

—  the  eternal  evil  in  tlie  world  —  found  some  new  way 
in  which  to  brinsf  to  nausfht  the  aims  and  the  efforts  of 
men.  Our  constant  progress  in  spite  of  that  evil  is 
guarantee  that  we  should  continue  to  overcome  its 
maledictions.  On  the  basis  of  just  and  permanent  polit- 
ical conditions  the  world  would  then  be  in  far  better 
position  to  deal  effectively  with  the  social  problems  and 
with  the  moral  dangers  which  would  still  remain  as 
obstacles  to  further  advance. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  MIND  OF   THE  WORLD 

When  we  talk  about  the  world  getting  together  in 
order  to  promote  the  peace  of  the  nations  or  for  tlie 
regulation  of  transportation  or  for  better  sanitation  of 
ports  and  ships,  it  all  seems  businesslike  and  practical. 
But  joint  action  by  the  nations  of  the  world  would  not 
be  possible  unless  there  were  an  identity  in  the  world 
corresponding  to  the  identity  of  any  one  people  but 
greater.  National  individuality  and  responsibility  are 
the  basis  of  treaties  and  are  the  foundation  of  interna- 
tional law.  National  self-consciousness  has  been  attained, 
but  world  self-consciousness  has  not.  Will  it  ever  be 
attained?  We  sometimes  hear  the  expression  "the 
mind  of  the  meeting,"  or  "the  sense  of  the  meeting," 
meaning  the  sum  of  the  wisdom  there  collected.  We 
have  the  frequent  use  of  the  words  "  common  sense," 
meaning  the  sum  of  the  judgment  of  all  the  people 
about  us.  More  than  that,  we  are  in  this  country  a 
democracy,  governed  by  the  wisdom  and  the  will  of  the 
majority.  Have  we  not,  therefore,  a  plausible  case  for 
speaking  of  "  the  mind  of  the  world  "  ? 

The  movement  for  a  legislative  body  for  the  world, 
which  already  has  made  large  progress,  looks  to  tlie 
organization  of  the  world  as  a  single  political  body  ;  and 
it  proves  that  the  mind  of  the  world  is  beginning  to 

109 


110  WORLD  OR(JANIZATION 

assert  itself,  for  it  is  based  upon  world  action  at  various 
times  until  the  need  of  organic  action  by  mankind  as  a 
political  unit  is  affirmed  by  those  who  are  active  in 
working  for  that  end.  The  establishment  of  the  Uni- 
versal Postal  Union  is,  as  has  already  been  remarked, 
the  best  illustration  of  this  united  world  action,  for 
every  nation  in  the  civilized  world  is  a  party  to  it. 

Doubtless  this  action  is  a  step  in  the  regular  evolu- 
tion of  the  world  according  to  law.  Therefore  it  must 
demand  the  careful  consideration  of  all  who  believe  in 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  who  hold  that  the  future 
has  a  strength  and  grandeur  of  development  for  the 
human  race  far  beyond  what  it  has  yet  achieved. 

It  does  not  seem  difficult  to  demonstrate  to  the  skep- 
tic that  this  advance  toward  a  world  legislative  body  is 
a  natural  and  inevitable  one  in  the  orderly  progress  of 
evolution.  It  is  also  directly  in  line  with  the  marked 
tendency  of  our  age  toward  the  consolidation  of  small 
enterprises  and  organizations  into  large  ones.  Evolu- 
tion has  shown  the  progress  of  business  through  the 
control  of  single  merchants,  partnerships,  corporations, 
and  trusts,  each  involving  a  larger  combination  of  indi- 
viduals, a  change  of  methods,  and  a  more  efficient  means 
of  distributing  goods  and  of  serving  the  public.  Inde- 
pendent tribes  and  clans  have  been  consolidated  into 
nations.  Our  thirteen  colonies  reached  an  organization 
highly  ideal  and  at  the  same  time  highly  practical  as 
one  nation.  It  is  only  one  more  step  to  bring  the  entire 
world  together,  and  the  prospect  of  reaching  that  result 
seems  more  certain  in  view  of  the  past  than  the  union  of 
the  colonies  seemed. 


r 


TIIK  MIND  OF    rilK  WORLD  111 

"  The  mind  of  the  united  worhl "  is  therefore  as 
legitimate  an  expression  as  "  the  mind  of  the  United 
States";  and  we  do  have  in  this  nation  a  practically 
united  mind  upon  a  great  many  determinations  regard- 
ing our  internal  laws  and  upon  our  foreign  policy.  We 
are  determined  that  polygamy  sliall  not  flourish  in  the 
United  States  ;  we  are  determined,  as  a  nation,  that  the 
Panama  canal  shall  be  built, — and  differences  of  opinion 
regarding  details  do  not  alter  the  fact  that  the  mind  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  affirms  that  the  world 
will  be  better  if  we  construct  the  canal. 

In  over  thirty  instances  already  the  mind  of  the 
world  has  taken  action.  The  world  intellect  has  delib- 
erated over  tlie  (question  presented,  and  then  the  world 
will  has  been  expressed.  Most  important  of  these 
expressions,  doubtless,  is  the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitra- 
tion. But  there  are  to  be  added  the  creation  of  the 
Universal  Postal  Union,  the  establishment  of  the  Inter- 
national Red  Cross  Society,  the  regulations  of  practices 
in  war  to  prevent  undue  barbarity,  the  establishment  of 
the  prime  meridian,  etc.,  as  represented  by  the  acts  of 
these  thirty  odd  world  conferences. 

Out  of  this  world  action  by  representatives  of  the  great 
nations  acting  in  harmony  until  they  have  reached  and 
promulgated  a  definite  conclusion  surely  there  will 
arise  a  world  self-consciousness,  just  as  we  have  reached 
a  national  self-consciousness  in  the  United  States.  It 
required  many  years  for  the  colonies  to  reach  that  stage 
of  development.  So  strong  was  the  local  self-conscious- 
ness of  the  colonies  that  it  required  over  two  years  for 
the  federal   constitution   to   be   recognized  by  all  the 


112  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

states  after  it  had  been  submitted  to  them.  Yet  the  peo- 
ple had  been  acting  together  by  their  joint  movements 
in  the  Indian  wars ;  especially  had  the  different  settle- 
ments been  brought  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary war ;  their  statesmen  had  sat  side  by  side  and 
felt  the  inspirations  of  the  national  mind  as  it  struggled 
upward  for  expression  in  the  Continental  Congress  and 
increased  in  strength  in  the  Constitutional  Convention. 
But  time  and  space  were  against  the  national  spirit  in 
those  days.  Unity  of  all  i,lie  parts  of  our  nation  has  not 
been  a  principle  everywhere  conceded  mitil  within  forty 
years.  Secession  has  been  held  as  a  local  right  for  the 
units  of  the  nation  for  more  than  half  of  our  history. 
But  we  now  have  an  undisputed  national  self-conscious- 
ness. Time  and  space  are  not  nearly  as  much  against 
the  organic  unity  of  the  world  now  as  they  were  against 
the  organic  unity  of  the  United  States  a  hundred  years 
ago.  The  rush  of  events  drives  the  nations  together, 
and  with  repeated  action  of  the  mind  of  the  world 
represented  by  men  of  the  nations  deliberating  together 
there  will  surely  be  developed  the  self-consciousness 
of  the  world,  and  the  thrill  and  enthusiasm  of  world 
unity  will  sweep  along  by  its  immense  current  the  hopes 
and  the  plans  for  greater  things,  —  just  as  the  grandeur 
of  our  national  progress  has  been  far  more  insi^iring 
than  the  limited  advance  of  the  states  by  themselves. 
World  movements,  world  enterprises,  world  plans,  world 
outlooks,  and  world  achievements  will  be  rapidly  due  to 
appear  upon  the  stage  of  action ;  and  the  broader  and 
more  sublime  impulse  will  give  a  stimulus  to  world 
progress  which  has  hitherto  been  impossible  with  men's 


« 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  WORLD  113 

plans,  outlooks,  and  sympathies  limited  by  national  boun- 
daries, and  with  their  sympathies  not  only  chilled  by 
bonds  of  race  and  limited  acquaintance  but  deprived  of 
a  world  friendliness  hitherto  unknown  but  hereafter  to 
be  the  possession  of  every  well-read  person. 

When  the  world  shall  have  come  up  into  the  light, 
the  expanse,  and  the  stimulus  of  self-consciousness  the 
mind  of  the  world  will  be  an  extremely  busy  organ. 
We  get  sufficient  proof  of  this  already  in  what  it  is  try- 
ing to  do  in  its  feeble  and  benighted  manifestation  in 
the  few  national  congresses  and  conferences  in  which  it 
has  struggled  for  the  attainment  of  an  opinion  and  the 
expression  of  its  will.  It  has  already,  by  its  establish- 
ment of  the  Hague  Court,  condemned  war.  It  is 
devoted  to  peace  and  it  will  insist  upon  peace  as  far 
and  as  fast  as  it  can  assert  itself  over  the  nations  and 
races  which  compose  the  total  unity  of  mankind.  It 
has  declared  for  humanity  by  its  condemnation  of  bar- 
barities. It  has  declared  for  preservation  of  the  world 
health  by  its  action  in  the  various  sanitary  conferences 
between  the  nations  of  the  world.  It  has  declared  for 
the  promotion  of  science,  as  is  seen  by  its  agreement 
upon  the  meridian  of  Greenwich.  It  is  deeply  inter- 
ested in  business  and  linance,  as  is  proved  by  the 
repeated  international  monetary  conferences.  It  has 
declared  for  the  liberty  of  man,  as  is  shown  by  the  atti- 
tude of  nations  toward  the  slave  trade  in  Africa.  It  is 
already  bestirring  itself  wherever  the  opportunity  offers 
in  behalf  of  the  betterment  of  the  world  as  an  immense 
and  organic  whole.  Yet  it  is  cramped,  limited,  unac- 
customed   to    action,    walking    in    the    dark,    without 


114  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

precedents,  lighted  only  by  the  torches  of  liberty,  trutli, 
and  conscience.  Experience  it  has  in  almost  no  degree. 
It  is  advancing  along  a  new  road.  Mistakes  are  to  be 
expected.  What  it  will  do  for  the  benefit  of  the  world 
when  it  is  expert,  conscious  of  its  strength,  true  to  its 
principles  in  every  case,  fearless  in  action,  quick  in  its 
execution,  and  pure  in  its  motives  we  cannot  yet  con- 
ceive, for  we  are  not  yet  educated  to  thinking  in  such 
terms,  nor  have  we  risen  yet  to  such  a  height  that  we 
can  comprehend  the  sumi;otal  of  these  prodigious  world 
forces.  We  can  only  affirm  that  the  world  action  must 
be  tremendous  and  that  it  will  sweep  humanity  onward 
with  a  movement  as  much  stronger  and  higher  than  any 
present  progress  as  the  world  is  greater  than  any  nation, 
and  as  much  more  efficient  as  united  action  by  the  whole 
nnist  be  greater  than  the  clashing,  the  friction,  and  the 
mutual  hindrances  of  jealous  and  distrustful  parts.  If 
we  can  judge  world  spirit  by  national  spirit,  this  rosy 
outlook  is  not  unreasonably  enthusiastic,  but  is  sober 
sense,  justified  by  what  we  know  of  human  nature  and 
by  what  we  see  of  the  immensity  of  world  forces. 

Not  only  will  the  world  mind  come  into  the  full  light 
of  self-consciousness,  but  it  wilt  be  vastly  better  devel- 
oped than  now ;  it  will  have  a  stronger  grasp  of  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  it  must  act  and  it  will  have  a  broader 
field  of  action.  This  will  be  so,  in  part,  because  such 
an  interchange  of  world  wisdom  is  already  in  progress, 
promoted  by  the  inventions  and  quick  communication 
of  modern  times.  The  different  peoples  of  the  world 
are  just  beginning  to  find  each  other.  Whatever  is  best 
in  any  part  is  now  being  brought  out  into  the  light  for 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  WORLD  115 

the  good  of  the  whole.  Whatever  national  geniuses 
have  discovered  is  now  heing  made  the  common  pos- 
session of  all  nations.  Lands  hitherto  nearly  closed  to 
the  entrance  of  external  thought,  such  as  Turkey  and 
China,  are  just  beginning  to  feel  the  quickening  impulse 
of  larger  truth  as  it  penetrates  their  darkness ;  and  the 
truth  has  never  yet  failed  to  proclaim  itself  or  to  find 
martyrs  to  its  divine  cause.  The  world  mind  is  sure  to 
be  a  better  mind  than  it  can  possibly  be  to-day,  and  just 
as  far  as  it  is  larger,  stronger,  keener,  and  more  active 
than  it  has  been  in  its  infantile  beginnings,  just  so  much 
the  more  will  it  hasten  the  possession  of  truth,  liberty, 
and  equality  for  the  atoms  of  which  the  world  of 
humanity  is  composed.  Americans  go  to  Germany  to 
finish  their  education  ;  Filipinos  take  up  their  abode  in 
London  and  I^aris  and  graduate  with  honor  from  Euro- 
pean universities ;  music,  painting,  and  philosophy  com- 
pel the  attendance  of  their  devotees  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  Great  educational  centers,  like  central  suns, 
shine  all  over  the  earth.  Multiply  present  conditions 
a  hundred  fold  and  then  compute,  if  possible,  what  the 
world  mind  will  be  when  it  has  come  to  its  own  inherit- 
ance. Yet  it  is  more  certain  to-day  that  such  a  consum- 
mation will  be  attained  than  it  was  in  1890  tliat  the 
Hague  Court  of  Arbitration  would  be  established. 

With  the  world  mind  trained  by  acquirement  of  the 
world's  best,  by  familiarity  with  ideas  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  and  by  the  experience  of  all  the  world,  what 
an  equipment  it  will  have  for  the  management  of  the 
business  of  the  world!  Though  we  are  warranted  in 
believing  that  the  world  will  have  a  far  greater  ideality 


116  WOULD   UllGA^'IZATIOX 

than  it  has  to-day  on  its  industrial  and  commercial  plane, 
it  is  equally  certain  that  it  will  have  greater  practical 
genius  also.  With  the  world  mind  at  the  head  of  world 
management  what  perfection  of  detail  in  the  develop- 
ment of  trade  and  transportation !  Whether  or  not 
there  is  realized  the  formal  control  of  agencies  by  the 
government  of  the  world,  there  will  be  brought  to  the 
solution  of  the  problems  the  experience  of  the  world 
and  the  unity  of  the  world  as  one  organic  political  body 
in  which  there  will  not  exist  friction  of  part  against 
part.  World-embracing  plans,  to  which  local  move- 
ments will  be  subordinate  and  to  whose  success  they 
will  also  be  contributory,  will  shape  the  movements  in 
trade  and  transportation  until  the  service  to  each  part 
with  the  products  of  every  other  part  will  be  as  ample 
as  the  demands  of  each  part  require.  Such  conditions, 
too,  will  make  incalculably  for  the  increase  of  the  wealth 
of  every  part,  for  the  dispersion  of  luxuries,  for  the 
gratification  of  delicate  tastes,  and  for  the  relief  of 
poverty  and  the  uplift  of  the  feeble  far  beyond  any- 
thing which  has  yet  been  accomplished  under  present 
methods  of  distributing  the  products  of  the  world. 

Elsewhere  there  have  been  treated  the  problems  of 
the  sovereignty  of  nations  and  of  the  supremacy  of  races 
as  they  are  related  to  this  movement  for  the  organic 
unity  of  the  world.  But  there  is  a  relation  of  the  world 
mind  to  the  government  of  the  world  which  concerns 
it  distinctly  as  mind.  If  there  is  one  truth  which  the 
world  has  learned  by  bitter  experience  and  which  every 
generation  and  every  nation  learns  over  for  itself,  it 
is  that  this  is  a  world  of  law,  —  inevitable,  inexorable 


THE  MIND  OF    I'lIE  WORLD  117 

law,  merciless,  swift,  and  sure  for  every  violator,  but 
beneficent,  discriminating,  and  sweet  for  every  one  who 
keeps  it.  Law,  not  made  by  man,  not  to  be  swerved 
by  man,  not  to  be  outlived  by  man,  will  always  be 
supreme  over  man  ;  that  is  the  permanent,  universal 
condition  under  whicli  man  lives.  The  world  mind  is 
under  it  and  must  eternally  obey  it  if  it  is  to  esca^je  its 
terrible  penalties.  Nations  must  be  upright  and  pure  if 
they  are  to  survive.  Out  of  the  wrecks  and  errors  of 
the  past  this  inexorable  truth  will  stand  clear,  as  one  of 
the  possessions  and  guiding  lights  of  the  world  mind. 
History  seems  to  be  read  to  little  purpose  by  many  so- 
called  statesmen  to-day ;  otherwise  the  world  would  act 
differently  from  the  way  in  which  it  now  acts.  The 
common  sense  of  tlie  world,  as  the  light  of  history 
illumines  the  channels  of  time,  will  say  that  certain 
rocks  must  be  avoided.  Certain  courses  will  be  recog- 
nized as  so  dangerous  that  by  common  consent  they  will 
be  removed  from  the  arena  of  discussion ;  and  the  mind 
of  the  world,  applying  its  knowledge  to  the  problems 
in  hand,  will  promote  stable  and  pure  government  to 
a  degree  far  greater  than  has  yet  been  attained.  It  is  a 
fair  presumption  that  there  will  prevail  a  quicker  public 
spirit  than  is  known  to-day,  —  that  the  masses  of  voters 
will  be  more  ready  to  perform  their  political  duties, 
that  the  problems  of  the  several  local  governments  and 
of  the  world  government  will  receive  large  attention  from 
a  well-educated  constituency  in  every  land,  and  that  in 
purity  and  efficiency  a  high  standard  will  be  maintained. 
But  the  mind  of  the  world  will  develop  in  other 
directions  when  this  movement  for  the  organization  of 


118  AVORLD  ORGANIZATION 

the  world  comes  to  its  fruition  ;  and  it  is  not  to  the 
point  here  to  object  that  it  is  not  coming  soon.  Given 
the  improved  intercouise  which  is  surely  coming  with 
increased  trade  and  transportation  along  the  lines  of 
present  development,  and  there  will  follow  —  there  is 
fallowing  already  —  greater  familiarity  of  the  minds  of 
one  part  with  the  minds  of  other  parts.  The  world  is 
coming'  to  understand  itself  better.  This  works  in  the 
way  of  removing  causes  of  misunderstanding  and  there- 
fore of  quarrels,  perha^ps  of  wars.  Each  side,  with  the 
interchange  of  information  unofficially  and  in  the  prog- 
ress of  events,  knows  more  of  the  influences  which  con- 
trol the  action  of  the  other  side.  Allowances  are  made, 
time  for  the  operation  of  forces  is  given,  private  and 
personal  influences  are  brought  to  bear,  friendly  offices 
are  invoked,  and  the  factors  which  make  for  peace  have 
an  immense  advantage  over  what  they  had  in  former 
days  when  "  stranger  "  and  "  enemy  "  meant  much  the 
same.  In  fact,  as  the  people  of  the  world  cease  to  be 
strangers  they  cease  to  become  enemies,  and  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  world,  as  far  as  it  is  expressed  by  the 
uses  of  the  word  hostis,  bears  out  the  argument.  Under 
the  changed  conditions  of  world  organization  the  mind 
of  the  world  will  be  more  disposed  for  peace  than  now, 
and  this  will  in  itself  and  unavoidably  make  prodi- 
giously for  the  peace  of  all  parts  of  the  world.  How 
soon  the  great  nations  will  disarm  is  a  question  which 
is  not  to  the  point  here,  but  it  is  a  reasonable  predic- 
tion that  a  world  police  for  the  outlying  fragments  of 
humanity  which  resist  the  laws  of  the  whole  and  for 
the  hopelessly  incorrigible  will  be  the  sum  of  the  armed 


tup:  MINI)  OF  THE  WORLD  119 

force  of  the  world.  Tlie  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration 
points  straight  to  that  conclusion,  while  the  probability 
of  the  ultimate  organization  of  the  world  adds  much 
strength  to  the  proposition. 

Of  course  all  problems  for  the  world  mind  will  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  be  such  as  relate  to  internal 
administration.  This  is  different  indeed  from  any  present 
national  condition,  where  the  external  policy  is  as  absorb- 
ing as  the  internal.  But  an  external  policy  is  not  essential 
to  the  existence  and  activity  of  an  organized  body  of 
men  or  women.  There  are  many  small  associations  whose 
policy  is  wholly  occupied  with  internal  affairs.  It  is  not 
a  source  of  weakness  that  there  are  not  external  rela- 
tions to  divert  attention  from  internal  improvements. 
The  world  mind,  as  far  as  it  shall  be  occupied  by  prob- 
lems internal  to  the  world  organization,  will  find  ample 
to  engage  its  attention.  No  one  can  study  the  internal 
problems  of  any  one  of  our  states,  still  less  of  our  nation, 
without  realizing  that  there  is  full  opportunity  for  all 
possible  activity  in  remedying  internal  ills  and  in  shap- 
ing sound  future  policies. 

Largest  and  most  enduring  of  all  these  problems,  if 
we  can  argue  from  present  traits  of  human  nature,  will 
be  that  of  securing  absolute  justice  for  every  part  and 
for  every  individual  in  every  part.  The  balance  of  local, 
national,  and  world  government  will  have  to  be  dis- 
covered and  maintained.  Rights  of  localities  are  not 
rights  to  act  as  they  please,  regardless  of  tlie  govern- 
ment of  the  whole,  but  the  riglits  to  engage  in  activities 
for  the  local  good  in  harmony  with  the  good  of  the 
whole.    The  inability  of  human  nature  by  reason  of  its 


120  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

finiteness  to  administer  local  and  individnal  rights  from 
a  central  office  is  sufficient  reason  for  permitting  local- 
ities to  administer  local  issues  for  themselves.  But 
there  is  no  abstract  right  in  the  locality  to  do  as  it  will 
against  the  well-being  of  the  whole,  and  in  like  manner 
national  rights  cannot  involve  rights  against  the  good 
©^f  the  world  as  a  whole.  Imperfection  and  friction  in 
the  political  machine  of  the  whole  is,  of  course,  as  inevi- 
table as  evils  in  the  political  machines  of  nations,  states, 
and  cities,  but  it  is  as  fair  to  predicate  improvement  in 
the  larger  instance  as  m  the  smaller. 

Another  aspect  of  the  development  of  the  mind  of 
the  world  it  is  pertinent  to  consider,  for  it  has  a  material 
bearing  on  the  peace,  prosperity,  and  progress  of  the 
world.  Without  admitting  the  claims  of  Christian 
science  or  mind-healing  or  any  similar  radicalisms 
which  disturb  and  repel  most  of  us,  it  has  long  been 
admitted  by  all  students  of  psychology  that  there  is 
a  close  relation  between  mind  and  body.  Now  with  a 
strong  mental  tonic  in  the  community  —  a  public  spirit 
which  affects  all  the  people  —  there  is  more  bodily  and 
mental  health  than  where  that  spirit  is  lacking.  Waves 
of  popular  enthusiasm  illustrate  the  truth.  Look  at  the 
unit}^  of  the  Japanese  people  in  their  struggle  against 
Russia.  With  the  world  spirit  of  progress  affecting  the 
larger  places  and  sweeping  down  into  the  smaller  as  it 
spreads,  there  would  be  a  stimulus  which  would  make 
over  the  lowest  portions  of  humanity  and  raise  them  up 
to  something  higher  and  better.  The  word  "  heathen  " 
signifies  the  dwellers  on  the  heath.  Pagans  are  "  vil- 
lagers."   The  world  mind  would  make  its  inspiring  way 


I 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  WORLD  121 

into  the  secluded  hamlets.  The  separate  tribes  would 
be  caught  by  its  spirit,  and  the  great  impulses  which 
would  first  stir  the  large  centers  would  not  be  spent 
until  they  had  reached  the  shores  of  the  ocean  of 
humanity.  There  would  be  serious  times  for  the  narrow, 
the  bigoted,  the  crabbed,  the  hermits,  and  the  crooked 
sticks  of  the  world.  Their  personal  peculiarities,  which 
were  fostered  and  perpetuated  by  their  seclusion,  would 
yield  before  the  healthy  vigor  of  the  mind  of  the  world, 
and  the  unhuman,  not  to  say  inhuman,  types  would 
disappear  or  retire  to  further  solitudes. 

Perhaps  in  the  religions  of  the  world  there  would  be 
the  greatest  changes  of  all  and  doubtless  the  slowest. 
But  with  the  coming  together  of  the  ends  of  the  earth 
every  form  of  religion  will  be  challenged  for  its  life.  It 
cannot  be  otherwise,  in  the  very  nature  of  tiuth.  Gen- 
erations may  pass  before  radical  forms  of  error  diligently 
inculcated  by  devoted  disciples  will  disappear,  but  the 
human  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  demands  the  truth 
and  it  challenges  every  assertion  which  claims  itself  to 
be  truth.  The  intensity  of  the  discussions  over  the 
most  commonly  accepted  doctrines  of  religion  to-day  are 
sufficient  proof  of  this.  But  the  mind  of  the  workl  will 
ceaselessly  demand  truth  and  it  will  have  truth  as  far 
as  it  has  increasing  power  to  attain  it.  History  will  be 
reversed  unless  there  continues  a  weeding  out  of  error 
and  a  progressive  establishment  of  that  whicli  the  mind 
cannot  overthrow  because  it  satisfies  its  demand  for 
eternal  verity.  In  the  nature  of  tlie  case,  too,  it  must 
be  supposed  that  the  perception  of  the  truth  in  larger 
measure  will   have   its   direct   effect  upon    the   peace, 


122  WORLD  ORGAXIZATION 

progress,  and  happiness  of  the  world.  But  different 
races  and  different  minds  of  the  same  race  would 
emphasize  different  phases  of  truth,  and  by  the  divers- 
ity in  unity  among  all  men  the  activity  and  progress 
of  the  world  would  be  assured  with  the  highest  degree 
of  mental  efficiency. 

-  Consequent  upon  this  evolution  of  the  mind  of  the 
world  as  a  whole  will  come  the  reflex  influence  upon 
the  minds  of  individuals,  the  stimulus  of  more  truth 
less  mixed  with  error,  and  the  larger  sense  of  personal 
worth.  Correctives  will  be  found  for  the  present  tend- 
ency of  the  employment  of  large  numbers  of  men  by  few 
employers  to  crush  out  the  independence  of  will  and 
strength  of  personality  which  were  promoted  by  indus- 
trial conditions  in  which  each  man  was  his  own  master. 
The  equal  standing  of  all  men  will  be  more  and  more 
approximated  in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory,  and  this  vital 
reality  in  the  consciousness  of  the  race  will  modify 
radically  present  institutions  based  on  despotism,  mon- 
archy, aristocracy,  or  heredity,  and  will  put  on  the 
throne  of  power  and  justice  the  true  democracy  of 
mankind. 


CHAPTER  XII 
FORCES  ACTIVE   FOR  WORLD  UNITY 

Strongest  of  all  the  bonds  which  hold  mankind 
together  in  a  body  whose  atoms  can  never  fly  apart  is 
humanity  itself  as  created  in  men  and  inherent  in  their 
very  nature.  That  bond  having  received  due  attention 
we  come  now  to  others,  not  created  but  developed. 
They  are  many  in  number  and  great  in  power.  Their 
number  and  their  power  are  increasing  rapidly.  They 
lay  hold  of  man  as  spirit  and  as  intellect;  they  grasp 
him  on  his  material  side;  they  weave  about  him  such  a 
net  that  he  could  not  break  it  if  he  would,  and  they  are 
of  such  unspeakable  benefit  that  he  would  not  if  he 
could. 

World  organizations  of  vast  energy  already  exist, 
even  if  the  world  is  not  yet  organized  politically. 
First  of  all  is  to  be  placed  the  ancient  historic  branch 
of  the  Christian  church,  —  the  Roman  Catholic  church. 
In  the  true  sense  of  the  word  this  is  an  organization. 
The  body  has  head  and  organs.  Secure  in  the  seven- 
hilled  city  rests  the  head  of  the  church.  Italy  is  the  place 
and  the  pope  is  Italian  ;  but  Italian  is  swallowed  up  in 
Christian,  and  Christian  touches  all  the  world.  Author- 
ity is  there,  strict  and  watchful.  All  organs  and  mem- 
bers of  the  body  nnist  obey  the  will  in  tlie  head.    That 

will  knows  no  bounds  of  empire  or  republic;  it  discerns 

123 


124  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

no  difference  of  language  or  complexion  or  race.  Mis- 
sionaries are  sent  to  all  climes.  Authority  and  the  bonds 
of  the  church  are  upon  all  who  are  in  the  membership. 
All  divergences  which  separate  men,  which  divide  them 
into  classes,  which  promote  jealousy,  distrust,  contempt, 
and  hostility  are  inferior  to  the  unifying  power  of  this 
world  religion. 

The  Protestant  denominations  also  are  developing 
world  organizations.  Though  there  is  not  in  them  the 
strength  of  central  authority  which  inheres  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  church,  yet  the  Episcopal,  Methodist,  Presby- 
terian, and  other  churches  having  centers  of  authority 
are  spreading  their  proportions,  while  the  extreme  of 
Protestantism  which  is  reached  in  the  independence  of 
the  individual  church  still  feels  the  greatness  of  its 
cause,  acknowledges  that  there  is  a  unity  which  is  above 
all  diversity,  and  has  its  international  council. 

Equal  superiority  to  divisive  forces  must  be  accorded 
to  the  other  great  religions.  The  Mohammedan  wel- 
comes the  Moor  and  the  Saracen  equally,  provided  he 
is  loyal  to  his  prophet.  The  Buddhist  counts  his  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  brown  and  yellow  brethren,  but  he 
does  not  exclude  from  his  brotherhood  the  white  man 
who  accepts  his  creed.  So  of  the  other  great  religions. 
They  override  space,  time,  color,  language,  and  class. 
As  a  rule  they  recognize  the  brotherhood  of  spirit  above 
all  these  divisive  forces. 

These  religious  forces  are  more  personal  than  the 
political  unity,  and  their  strength  and  constant  activity 
prove  how  the  true  brotherhood  of  man  rises  supreme 
over  all  obstacles  and  actually  Ijriugs  the  world   into 


FORCES  ACTIVE  FOR  WORLD  UNITY  125 

such  oneness  that  the  centrifugal  forces  of  distance, 
ignorance,  race,  language,  class,  jealousy,  and  hate, 
though  still  as  destructive  as  volcanoes,  are  yet  subordi- 
nate to  the  stronger  gravitation  of  "  the  unity  of  the 
spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace." 

Again,  science  is  one  with  religion  in  this  triumph 
over  all  divisive  forces  among  races,  nations,  classes, 
and  individuals.  The  fraternity  whose  password  is  truth 
and  whose  qualification  is  devoted  service  admits  at  the 
giving  of  the  password  and  continues  the  membership  as 
long  as  the  qualification  endures.  Scientific  societies 
have  their  standards,  but  they  are  not  of  color  or 
birthplace  or  religious  creed  or  language.  Moreover, 
the  bonds  between  men  of  similar  scientific  pursuits, 
in  whatever  land  they  dwell,  are  multiplying  and 
strengthening  as  the  improved  means  of  communication 
enable  them  to  learn  more  of  each  other  and  to  feel  more 
constantly  and  powerfully  the  binding  force  of  their 
common  aims  and  sympathy.  Astronomers  and  geog- 
raphers, chemists  and  botanists,  mathematicians  and 
physicists,  linguists  and  ethnologists  are  more  than 
ever  interested  in  each  other  and  more  than  ever  dis- 
regai-dful  of  the  separation  of  race  and  language.  They 
are  brothers  in  the  search  for  truth,  —  that  is  their  one 
supreme  bond  of  union  ;  and  they  are  indifferent  regard- 
ing the  nonessentials  in  their  relations  with  each  other. 

Furthermore,  the  bond  of  art  is  as  supreme  in  its  com- 
pelling power  as  is  the  bond  of  science.  From  all  parts 
of  the  world  those  whose  souls  are  aflame  with  the  zeal  of 
their  great  ideals  go  to  the  art  centers  for  study  and 
for  opportunity  to  approach  nearer  to  perfection.    Art 


126  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

academies  with  their  students  from  both  hemispheres 
and  from  all  races  are  themselves  a  complete  demonstra- 
tion that  the  human  soul  is  not  limited  by  the  color  of 
the  body  in  which  it  abides  nor  by  the  accent  of  the 
tongue  by  which  it  speaks  nor  by  the  form  of  the  creed 
through  which  it  accepts  its  Creator,  but  that  it  mounts 
on^wings  high  above  these  petty  earthly  separations  and 
in  the  open  heaven  recognizes  the  brotherhood  of  soul 
with  soul,  scorning  to  ask  the  name  of  the  race  or  the 
nation  or  the  class  where  the  soul  had  its  origin  and 
to  which  it  has  earthly  attachments.  And  as  the  realm 
of  art  is  expanding  in  that  worthy  expansion  which 
is  not  based  on  national  or  personal  selfishness,  and 
which  requires  no  slaughter  of  men  in  order  that  it  may 
seize  what  the  dead  held  when  alive,  its  growing  power 
for  world  unity  is  felt,  and  it  is  an  added  assurance  that 
the  future  has  beatitudes  which  the  past  never  sus- 
pected save  in  the  unreality  of  dreams. 

Religion,  science,  and  art,  then,  the  exponents  of  the 
good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful,  all  affirm  the  unity 
of  mankind.  They  demonstrate  it  by  their  constant 
supremacy  over  all  the  forces  which  tend  to  separation ; 
and  when  we  see  that  what  calls  itself  "  society  "  is  the 
chief  element  among  men  which  insists  upon  the  valid- 
ity and  the  respectability  of  the  divisive  forces,  we  rec- 
ognize the  essentially  infernal  spirit  of  such  "  society  " 
and  feel  sure  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  prediction  that 
"  society  "  will  be  revolutionized,  if  men  are  to  be  either 
religious  or  scientific  or  inspired  by  art. 

Below  the  spheres  of  soul  and  of  intellect,  the  material 
forces  which  hold  mankind  together  are  numerous  and 


FORCES  ACTIVE  FOR  WOULD  UNITY  127 

potent.  They  are  multiplying  and  gaining  power.  They 
break  over  all  obstacles ;  they  cross  the  oceans ;  they 
build  railroads ;  they  stretch  telegraph  and  telephone 
wires  from  all  centers  into  remote  regions ;  they  make 
new  inventions  ;  they  harness  science  to  their  service ; 
they  learn  the  languages  of  many  nations ;  they  brave 
the  cold  and  the  darkness  of  the  arctics ;  they  defy  the 
heat  and  the  pestilence  of  the  tropics ;  tliey  delve  into 
the  depths  of  the  earth ;  they  sound  the  abysses  of  the 
oceans ;  they  annihilate  space  and  time,  —  and  they  do 
all  these  things  in  order  to  satisfy  the  material  wants  and 
whims  of  men.  Mankind  without  them  would  be  cold 
and  hungry,  ignorant  and  weak,  sick  and  diseased.  Man- 
kind demands  the  products  of  all  climes  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  its  needs,  for  the  gratification  of  its  tastes,  for 
the  increase  of  its  virtues,  and  for  the  indulgence  of  its 
vices.  For  good  and  for  ill  it  must  and  will  go  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  the  means  whereby  it  accom- 
plishes its  purpose  are  all  of  them  bonds  holding  the 
ends  of  the  earth  in  the  common  unity  of  the  whole. 

Spirit,  intellect,  and  matter,  therefore,  each  with 
resistless  force  already  and  with  increasing  energy, 
all  combine  to  make  mankind  a  unity  which  is  indis- 
soluble. That  unity  is  rapidly  becoming  organized ; 
and  an  organized,  intelligent,  and  purposeful  combina- 
tion of  men  is  as  superior  to  a  disorganized  mass  as  the 
highest  individual  man  is  superior  to  a  babe ;  and  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  mankind  consequent  upon  organ- 
ization will  be  as  superior  to  what  has  been  hitherto 
enjoyed  as  wisdom  is  superior  to  folly. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
WORLD  ORGANIZATION   SECURES  WORLD  PEACE 

World  peace  is  the  object  of  the  universal  peace 
congresses,  which  have  come  to  perform  such  a  great 
and  growing  educational  function.  World  organization, 
beginning  with  a  world  legislature,  or  a  "  stated  inter- 
national congress,"  is  the  object  of  an  effort  which 
already  has  strong  standing.  The  proposition  here 
advanced  is  that  world  organization  includes  world 
peace  and  vastly  more.  Therefore  —  to  employ  a  mili- 
tary term  in  speaking  of  the  effort  for  peace  —  the  peace 
of  the  world  may  be  secured  most  quickly  and  perma- 
nently by  a  flank  movement,  not  attacking  the  diffi- 
culties directly  in  front,  but  approaching  them  by  way 
of  the  organization  of  the  world.  When  the  greater 
object  shall  have  been  secured,  the  less  will  be  found 
one  of  the  rewards  of  the  effort,  and  such  broad  and 
deep  foundations  will  have  been  laid  for  the  future  that 
the  superstructure  cannot  be  overthrown. 

By  putting  mankind  mto  its  true  position  as  an 
organic  whole  permanent  conditions  of  peace  will  be 
established.  It  may  occur  that  some  outburst  of  human 
passion  will  flare  up,  making  a  commotion  for  a  time. 
But  that  will  not  change  the  general  truth  nor  over- 
throw the  fact  that  the  best  possible  conditions  for  per- 
manent peace  have  been  established.    The  crust  of  the 

128 


WORLD  ORGANIZATION  SECURES  PEACE      129 

earth  is  a  fairly  stable  place  upon  which  to  live,  in 
spite  of  earthquakes  and  volcanoes.  Earth's  forces 
break  out  at  times ;  men's  passions  might  overcome 
restraint  occasionally ;  but  the  fitting  of  the  nations 
into  the  unity  of  mankind  would  be  the  best  possible 
preventive  of  such  outbreaks,  the  most  likely  to  compel 
them  to  be  of  short  duration,  and  the  most  powerful 
energy  to  force  the  insubordinate  elements  into  their 
due  subordination. 

World  organization  must  grow  out  of  the  essential 
unity  of  mankind.  It  cannot  be  a  federation,  or  any 
agreement  which  has  in  itself  the  seeds  of  nullificatioii 
or  secession  or  any  implication  that  the  conditions  were 
created  by  men  and  may  be  destroyed  by  men  at  will. 
The  fundamental  reality  in  the  existence  of  mankind 
was  not  created  by  men  and  cannot  be  destroyed  by 
men.  Recognition  of  this  fundamental  truth,  the  unity 
of  mankind,  is  the  preliminaiy  of  world  organization. 
Effort  for  world  peace  should  therefore  act  along  the 
line  of  omnipotent  truths,  and  not  endeavor  to  advance 
along  a  line  of  options  created  by  men. 

World  organization  will  be  found  much  easier  than 
it  now  seems  to  most  people,  if  they  will  only  practice 
what  the}^  know,  or  believe,  to  be  true.  One  of  the 
inconsistencies  which  every  observing  man  must  notice 
is  not  only  (as  the  world  generally  complains)  that 
Christians  do  not  act  as  if  they  believed  what  they  say 
they  believe,  but  that  this  is  just  as  true  of  people  gen- 
erally ;  they  seem  to  distrust  the  universality  and  unde- 
viating  force  of  eternal  principles.  With  many  people 
it  is  as  if  the  multiplication  table  ran  after  this  fashion : 


130  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

"  5  times  5  are  25  ;  6  times  5  are  about  30 ;  7  times 
5  are  between  34  and  36 ;  8  times  5  are  uncertain, 
authorities  differ,  the  public  is  in  doubt,  and  it  is  a 
question  which  may  well  be  left  to  a  referendum." 
Building  on  the  eternal  foundation  of  the  unity  of  man- 
kind (and  those  who  dispute  it  are  a  negligible  quan- 
tity for  this  discussion),  the  steps  which  are  in  order 
for  the  organization  of  the  world  into  one  political  body 
are  coming  to  be  seen  more  and  more  distinctly  in  the 
near  future.  ^ 

We  take  the  world  as  it  is  to-day,  more  or  less  occu- 
pied by  nations  more  or  less  near  together,  every  pro- 
ducer trying  to  enlarge  his  market  and  to  bring  the 
world  closer  to  himself,  —  except  where  statesmen  are 
using  the  tremendous  powers  of  government  to  put 
obstructions  in  the  way  of  trade  and  to  make  each 
country  an  isolated  economic  factor.  Though  nations 
have  many  relations  to  one  another  and  more  to-day 
tlian  ever  before,  yet  they  want  many  more  than  they 
have  now.  People  in  incalculable  numbers  in  every 
quarter  of  the  earth  wish  to  do  business  with  other 
people  in  every  other  part  of  the  earth;  and  all  sorts 
of  persons,  in  all  sorts  of  places,  have  a  desire  which 
would  be  uncontrollable,  if  they  had  the  money  to  sat- 
isfy it,  to  see  all  the  other  sorts  of  persons  and  places 
upon  the  earth.  World  unity  is  a  fact  to-day.  But 
unity  of  the  world  under  a  government  of  men  is  not 
a  fact.  Narrowness  of  view,  conservative  ideas  of  prog- 
ress, timidity  regarding  the  future,  selfish  jealousy  lest 
others  get  more  than  we  if  we  throw  down  all  barriers 
which  shut  us  out  from  our  place  in  the  organic  total 


WOltlJ)  OlK^ANIZATION  SJ-XUKES  PEACE       131 

of  mankind,  —  these  factors  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
accomplishment  of  formal  political  unity  and  in  every 
nation  hold  back  those  who  are  already  fit  and  other- 
wise ready  for  political  union. 

At  our  present  rate  of  progress,  considering  the 
enterprise,  push,  and  optimism  of  men,  this  unstable 
condition  cannot  exist  much  longer.  World  forces  are 
rapidly  bringing  mankind  to  its  birthright  as  a  united 
whole  working  together  in  harmony,  and  the  wonder 
will  be  how  men  could  have  been  so  foolish  as  to  have 
opposed  or  ridiculed  such  a  consummation. 

Organization  for  a  political  person  means  that  it 
nmst  have  organs  whereby  it  can  know  its  environ- 
ment, what  its  body  is,  what  its  surroundings  are,  what 
its  nature  demands,  what  its  circumstances  permit,  as 
far  as  the  functions  of  a  knowing  organ  are  concerned. 
It  must  have  the  means  of  expressing  its  will  after  it 
has  learned  what  its  conditions  demand,  it  must  have 
an  organ  for  carrying  the  will  into  action,  it  must 
have  an  organ  to  determine  how  far  the  expressed  will 
applies  to  particular  cases.  In  other  words,  it  must 
have  a  legislative  department,  an  executive  department, 
and  a  judicial  department. 

Nations  have  these  organs  now.  To  that  partial 
extent  mankind  is  organized  already.  But  mankind 
as  a  whole  has  not  yet  any  such  organs  established 
and  recognized  by  the  nations.  The  nations  deny  that 
there  is  any  sovereignty  over  them.  It  is  true  that 
developments  have  already  occurred,  remarkable  in 
number  and  wonderfully  significant  in  idea,  proving  the 
unity  of  mankind,  and  that  the  nations  are  coming  to 


132  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

recognize  it.  But  hitherto  not  only  has  each  nation 
rightly  denied  that  any  other  is  more  sovereign  than 
itself,  but  each  has  refused  to  admit  the  sovereignty  of 
the  whole  over  itself.  That  is,  mankind  as  a  whole  is 
not  yet  organized.  Fragmentary  organization  —  equip- 
ment with  organs  by  sections  known  as  nations  —  is  the 
highest  point  of  development  thus  far. 

Now,  in  the  relations  of  nations  to  one  another,  as  is 
proved  by  their  treaties  and  code  of  international  law, 
certain  truths  are  recognized  which  involve  the  very 
nature  of  mankind  as  a  created  whole.  That  is,  there 
is,  as  has  been  shown  in  previous  pages,  a  world  con- 
stitution, unwritten,  not  called  by  that  name,  but  exist- 
ing as  truly  as  the  animal  creation  existed  before  it  was 
named  by  man  and  as  independent  of  his  recognition 
and  his  naming  as  the  animal  creation  was  independent 
of  human  recognition.  Though  that  world  constitution 
has  remained  obscure  and  unrecognized,  yet  world 
progress  toward  its  formal  expression  has  been  wonder- 
fully rapid  in  recent  years. 

In  the  first  place,  that  constitution  is  bringing  about 
the  formal  existence  of  an  organ  for  the  use  and  for  the 
expression  of  the  intelligence  and  tlie  will  of  the  world. 
Nations  repeatedly,  in  separate  congresses  and  upon 
special  subjects,  have  expressed  their  intelligence  and 
their  will  and  have  intrusted  to  the  nations  severally  the 
duty  of  carrying  out  that  will,  as  is  most  perfectly  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  the  Universal  Postal  Union.  That 
is,  the  nations  are  creating  a  world  legislative  department. 

In  the  next  place,  the  establishment  of  the  Hague 
Court  of  Arbitration  is  doubtless  the  beginning  of  the 


WORLD  UKCJANIZATION  SECURES  PEACE      133 

establishiiient  of  u  judicial  department  which  will 
include  other  duties  than  the  settlement  of  causes 
dangerous  to  the  peace  of  nations.  Lastly,  the  formal 
establishment  of  some  world  executive  will  not  long 
lag  Ijehind  the  creation  of  the  legislative  and  the  judi- 
cial departments.  The  world  is  moving  rapidly  toward 
political  organization  as  one  body;  and  the  situation 
must  soon  reveal  itself  to  present  doubters. 

United  States  history  throws  a  powerful  light  upon 
the  wider  truth  of  the  relations  of  the  nations  to  one 
another.  After  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutioji  came 
the  federation.  Subject  colonies  having  thrown  off  the 
government  of  England  were  independent  states,  or  sov- 
ereign powers,  in  their  relations  to  one  another  and  to 
the  world.  So  they  said.  But  the  Nature  of  Things, 
asserting  itself  through  a  disorganized  currency,  indus- 
trial distress,  political  antagonisms,  and  the  decrepitude 
of  tlie  central  government,  said  to  these  self-styled  sov- 
ereigns :  "  You  are  fools.  You  must  recognize  me.  You 
are  one.  You  must  recognize  your  unity  in  me.  Throw 
away  your  theories.  Admit  the  truth  which  existed 
before  you,  which  shaped  your  being,  and  which  holds 
you  m  its  inexorable  grasp."  The  wisdom  of  the 
framers  was  shown  in  their  recognition  of  the  folly 
of  the  federation  and  in  their  willingness  to  become 
subordinate  to  the  Nature  of  Things. 

Yet  the  sovereignty  of  each  state  was  recognized  — 
such  were  the  exigencies  of  the  times  —  to  the  extent 
that  it  could  c^me  under  the  Constitution  or  not,  at 
its  will.  Years  passed  before  the  slowest  and  dullest 
and  most  selfish  of  them  recognized  the  fundamental 


134  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

fact  that  they  were  in  the  grip  of  circumstances  and 
in  relations  over  which  they  had  no  sovereignty,  and 
then  they  formally  adopted  the  Constitution. 

What  the  Nature  of  Things  will  yet  do  with  the 
United  States  remains  to  be  seen.  As  far  as  our  Con- 
stitution is  in  accord  with  the  supreme,  unwritten  con- 
stitution, it  is  in  an  impregnable  stronghold  and  no 
might  of  man  can  destroy  it.  But  wherever  it  is  not 
in  accord,  or  is  so  interpreted  as  not  to  be  in  working- 
accord,  then  the  Nature  of  Things  will  have  no  more 
regard  for  the  written  Constitution  than  a  tornado  has 
for  the  straws  in  its  path.  Fundamental  rights  of  man 
and  the  true  obligations  and  responsibilities  of  nations 
lie  in  the  world  constitution,  back  of  all  written  agree- 
ments or  treaties  or  human  understandings  whatever, 
and  they  will  triumph  at  last,  provided  men  are  unself- 
ish enough  and  brave  enough  to  die  for  their  rights, 
—  and  martyrs  have  never  yet  been  lacking  when  the 
cause  was  clear.  So  we  can  turn  to  the  history  of  the 
United  States  and  get  a  bright  illumination  upon  present 
conditions  and  duties. 

States  of  the  United  States  do  not  have  wars  with  one 
another.  It  is  true  that  the  great  civil  strife  occurred ; 
but  the  Nature  of  Things  proved  that  the  bond  over 
the  warring  parts  was  stronger  than  the  repellent  forces 
whose  presence  together  was  due  to  the  introduction 
of  a  falsehood  contradicting  the  truth  of  human  free- 
dom, one  of  the  fundamental  and  eternal  principles  upon 
which  the  nation  was  established.  But  civil  war  between 
different  individual  states  is  impossible,  though  there 
are  diversities  of  interests  and  of  local  sentiment  between 


AVOIILD  ORGANIZATION  SECURES  PEACE      135 

some  of  the  states  greater  than  the  diversity  between 
the  northern  tier  of  states  and  the  interests  and  senti- 
ment of  the  people  of  Canada.  States  of  the  United 
States  have  no  tariff  wall  between  them.  Though  the 
nation  covers  such  immense  territory  that  the  good  of 
one  section  is  gained  under  our  tariff  by  direct  and 
admitted  loss  to  another,  —  as  in  the  case  of  the  duty 
on  hides  and  leather,  —  yet  the  states  which  suffer  for 
the  benefit  of  the  others  continue  in  their  friendly  rela- 
tions and  there  is  no  possibility  of  war.  The  original 
colonies  have  submitted  to  tlie  Nature  of  Tilings.  They 
have  abandoned  forever  their  claim  of  absolute  sover- 
eignty and  they  enjoy  permanent  peace  and  friendship 
with  one  another.  They  are  in  organic  relations  with 
one  another.  Politically  they  are  one.  One  flag  is  over 
them.  One  legislative  body  composed  of  representatives 
of  all  sections  makes  laws  for  the  whole  and  promotes 
the  development  of  the  weakest  parts.  One  judiciary 
department  has  jurisdiction  over  cases  which  arise  be- 
tween the  different  states,  or  between  the  states  and  the 
general  government,  or  between  citizens  of  different 
states ;  settlement  of  all  differences  is  assured  according 
to  forms  of  justice  which  are  the  same  in  all  parts  of 
the  country.  One  executive,  in  the  choice  of  whom  all 
the  parts  have  a  voice,  enforces  the  will  of  the  repre- 
sentatives and  carries  out  the  decisions  of  the  courts. 
The  political  machinery  is  built  for  the  just  settlement 
of  causes  of  differences  and  for  the  harmonious  growth 
of  all  parts  of  the  living  whole.  Law  is  respected.  An 
army  is  needed  internally  for  police  purposes  for  the 
savage  and  lawless  communities  only. 


136  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Yet  these  amicable  and  prosperous  relations  for  the 
individual  states  have  not  been  secured  by  any  direct 
agreements  between  them  individually  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution.  Maine  has  no  treaty  relations 
with  California  nor  even  with  New  Hampshire.  Formal 
relations  have  been  rendered  Jieedless  forever  because 
the  Nature  of  Things  has  been  recognized.  That  deter- 
mines the  relations  of  the  states  to  one  another.  When 
they  have  once  come  into  the  relations  which  are  in 
accord  with  the  higher^  powers,  further  arrangements 
have  been  superfluous.  The  greater  has  included  the 
less,  and  a  vault  full  of  treaties  and  agreements  and 
codicils  and  explanations  and  ratifications  could  accom- 
plish no  more  than  is  secured  forever  in  the  whole  and 
in  detail  by  the  simple  act  of  recognizing  the  funda- 
mental unity  of  the  states  in  the  superior  nation. 

Thus  the  United  States  is  an  illustration  to  the  entire 
world  of  the  peace  and  prosperity  which  follow  the 
accomplishment  in  political  life  of  the  unity  of  man- 
kind, as  far  as  our  Union  embodies  and  expresses  that 
unity.  When  Connecticut  expanded  into  the  great 
West  it  was  not  necessary  that  she  should  conquer 
larger  areas.  The  exact  contrary  actually  occurred, 
and  the  survival  of  the  name  of  the  Connecticut  West- 
ern Reserve  will  proclaim  to  the  world,  as  long  as  those 
hear  who  have  ears  to  hear,  that  political  supremacy  is 
needless  for  the  spread  of  a  colonizing  people.  New 
York  capitalists  did  not  declare  war  upon  Montana 
when  they  wished  to  invest  their  capital  in  the  deposits 
which  dazzled  the  imagination  of  the  covetous  by  the 
fabulous  richness  of  their  ores ;  yet  the  local  laws  of 


WORLD  ORGANIZATION  Sl-XURES  PEACE      137 

Montana  were  materially  different  from  those  of  New 
York.  Ohio  has  not  made  war  upon  Louisiana  because 
the  latter  has  control  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
and  prevents  access  to  the  ocean.  Massachusetts  has 
not  carried  fire  and  sword  into  South  Carolina  in  order 
to  invest  her  capital  there  in  cotton  manufacture ;  nor 
did  New  Hampshire  desolate  the  plains  of  Kansas  with 
the  carnage  of  innocent  women  and  children  and  becloud 
the  horizon  with  the  smoke  of  burning  homes  in  order 
to  make  sure  of  her  investments  in  Western  farm  mort- 
gages. Pennsylvania  has  not  establislied  concentration 
camps  of  the  helpless  noncombatants  of  her  sister  states 
in  order  to  open  a  market  for  her  iron  and  coal ;  nor 
has  Minnesota  transported  the  people  of  Rhode  Island 
to  some  remote  confinement  in  order  to  open  up  the 
little  state  to  her  superabundant  wheat.  Expansion 
has  been  the  practice  in  our  country  from  the  begin- 
ning, free  and  constant  expansion  without  the  accom- 
paniment of  political  conquest,  even  where  the  people 
and  the  laws  to  which  the  expansionists  went  were 
totally  different  from  those  that  they  left  behind  them. 
Tlie  Southwestern  states  with  their  Mexican  antece- 
dents and  population  illustrate  the  power  of  supreme 
political  conditions  to  preserve  the  peace  and  to  open 
all  possible  sources  of  profitable  investment  without 
resort  to  force,  to  say  nothing  of  resort  to  outrage, 
oppression,  and  slaughter. 

No  one  has  ever  been  heard  to  say  in  these  times 
that  this  systewi  of  political  relations  is  less  beneficial 
than  would  be  a  system  whereby  each  state  miglit  be 
an  independent  sovereignty,  each  having  a  high  tariff 


138  WORLD  ORGAXIZATION 

wall  against  its  neighbor,  each  staggering  under  a  stand- 
ing army  to  repel  invasions  from  its  stronger  neighbors 
and  to  plunder  its  weaker  ones,  where  each  workman 
toiled  with  a  soldier  strapped  to  his  back  in  order  to 
maintain  an  unstable  equilibrium,  and  where  the  pas- 
sions and  jealousies  of  each  state  were  in  constant 
exercise  against  each  and  every  one  of  its  neighbors. 
Yet  such  would  be  the  condition  of  the  states  of  our 
country  to-day  if  they  had  not  recognized  the  Nature 
of  Things  and  surrendered  a  seeming  sovereignty, 
which  they  never  had  in  fact,  in  order  to  rise  to  a 
higher  plane  of  existence  as  subordinate  parts  of  one 
organic  whole,  one  self-governing  nation. 

This  is  no  mere  human  order  which  is  supreme  in 
our  country  to-day.  It  is  no  result  of  cunning  wits 
planning  out  a  political  machine  and  fitting  the  parts 
together  like  a  marvelous  mechanism  so  fi-amed  that  it 
never  breaks  down  and  never  develops  excessive  friction. 
Our  present  system  is  strong  because  it  recognizes  the 
foundation  truths  which  lie  in  the  relations  of  free  and 
independent  human  beings  to  one  another.  Our  states- 
men have  recognized  and  applied  the  eternal  truths  in 
the  Nature  of  Things.  The  inevitable  consequences 
have  followed  that  recognition.  Similar  consequences 
will  follow  similar  recognition  in  the  relations  of  the 
nations  to  one  another. 

But  there  are  other  forces  which  work  for  the  unity 
of  our  country.  Sons  of  New  England  become  loyal 
sons  of  the  western  states  in  which  they  have  their 
present  homes,  yet  they  are  none  the  less  loyal  to  the 
homes  of  their  fathers.    Old  Home  Week  is  conclusive 


WORLD  OUdANIZATION  SECURES  PEACE      139 

proof  of  the  strength  of  the  bond  which  liokls  the 
dwellers  on  the  prairies  to  the  hills  and  valleys  of  the 
ancestral  states.  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Revolu- 
tion are  equally  loyal  whether  they  live  on  the  Atlan- 
tic, Pacific,  Gulf,  or  Lake  coast.  It  has  been  proclaimed 
as  one  of  the  blessings  of  the  war  with  Spain  (not  admit- 
ting or  denying  here  the  assumption  that  war  has  bless- 
ings) that  it  brought  together  once  more  Southerner  and 
Northerner  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Fraternal 
orders  have  their  members  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
Great  expositions  demonstrate  that  there  is  a  brother- 
hood among  all  our  people  whether  they  come  from 
the  East  or  West.  Freedom  of  intercourse,  frequency  of 
personal  contact,  intimate  association  in  trade  and  pleas- 
ure, familiarity  with  one  another's  peculiarities,  appre- 
ciation of  the  humanity  which  is  deeper  and  stronger 
than  peculiarities  and  circumstances,  —  all  these  influ- 
ences weld  our  people  into  one  great  family  between 
whose  members  conflict  is  becoming  more  and  more 
impossible,  not  only  because  our  political  system  pre- 
vents it,  but  also  because  our  political  system  promotes 
something  higher  than  political  relations  and  because 
the  brotherly  affection  between  our  people  will  find 
some  way  other  than  war  by  which  to  settle  any  differ- 
ences which  may  arise  out  of  their  common  weaknesses 
and  passions. 

Now  apply  the  illustration  of  the  United  States  to 
the  nations  of  the  world.  Suppose  that  the  first  object 
of  world  statesmen  is  to  secure  perpetual  peace.  We 
have  shown  the  world  how.  Our  states  have  formally 
surrendered  their  claim  to  absolute  sovereignty.    They 


140  WORLD  OllGANTZATTON 

have  voluntarily  taken  their  place  as  subordinate  parts 
in  a  larger  whole,  and  the  crushing  might  of  the 
stronger  states  coercing  the  weaker  ones  by  fire  and 
sword,  by  slaughter  and  rapine,  was  not  a  necessary 
preliminary  of  the  new  relation.  The  states  reserved 
for  local  self-government  the  details  in  which  local 
administration  can  secure  more  accurate  justice  and 
larger  liberty  for  each  person  than  the  broad  and  less 
discriminating  power  of  the  central  government.  Let 
each  nation  now,  in  the  pursuit  of  world  peace,  recog- 
nize in  like  manner  the  Nature  of  Things.  It  was 
supreme  over  our  original  states.  It  is  equally  supreme 
over  all  the  nations  combined ;  and  it  will  continue  to 
load  them  down  with  the  enormous  burden  of  their 
ignorance  and  their  blunder  until  they  open  their  eyes 
and  admit  the  prime  fact  in  their  existence. 

Our  states  established  a  political  organization  to  fit 
iheir  needs ;  that  is,  they  set  up,  with  all  the  wisdom 
they  could  gather  from  their  experience  enlarged  by 
their  rare  genius  for  political  constructiveness,  a  legisla- 
tive department  for  their  central  government,  an  execu- 
tive department,  and  a  judicial  department.  Every 
necessary  organ  was  provided.-  Organs  are  indispensa- 
ble to  bodies  which  expect  to  do  anything  and  it  would 
be  as  foolish  to  suppose  that  the  world  as  a  political 
body  can  act  without  world  organs  as  to  suppose  that 
we  could  have  a  central  government  for  the  United 
States  without  organs  whose  field  for  exercise  covered 
the  entire  country.  The  world  has  not  yet  got  its  head. 
It  lias  no  organ  of  intelligence.  It  is  far  from  having 
any  means  whereby  it  can  formulate  or  express  its  will. 


WOP.LD  ORGANIZATION  SECURES  PEACE      141 

and  further  still  from  a  means  of  enforcing  it.  A 
world  legislature,  then,  a  world  executive,  and  a  world 
judiciary  nnist  come  in  due  time,  before  mankind  will 
be  fitly  organized  for  any  simple  act  as  a  world  organism. 
If  we  face  the  situation  squarely,  we  see  that  it  does  not 
require  either  impossibilities  or  absurdities.  It  offers 
promise  of  reward  beyond  our  imagination  to  compre- 
hend, yet  within  the  al)ility  of  the  nations  to  secure  with- 
out loss  to  any  and  with  immense  credit  and  benefit  to  all. 
Furthermore,  the  signs  of  the  times  point  to  the  certain 
realization  of  the  predictions  of  political  world  unity. 

Already  the  world  has  made  material  progress  toward 
the  consummation  of  this  great  ideal,  though  the  skep- 
tics are  many  in  spite  of  a  profusion  of  facts.  World 
peace  may  be  much  nearer  than  the  hopeless  and  the 
doubters  suppose.  Humanity  is  even  now  becoming 
organized  into  one  whole.  The  idea  of  world  unity  is 
stronger  to-day  than  it  ever  was  before.  Expectation 
of  the  realization  of  tlie  inspiring  ideal  is  spreading 
among  those  who  watcli  the  signs  of  the  times.  Famil- 
iarity with  the  facts  only  strengthens  this  confidence. 
The  example  of  the  United  States  is  in  itself  a  proof 
which  will  do  much  to  convince  the  political  leaders  of 
our  country  and  to  persuade  the  statesmen  of  Europe, 
Asia,  South  America,  and  other  lands  that  the  truth 
is  applicable  to  all  mankind  and  that  in  the  realization 
of  this  ideal  will  come  permanent  peace  and  prosperity 
with  practical  enjoyment  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Absolute  sovereignty  having  been  waived  by  the 
agreement  of  the  nations  to  enter  into  a  regular  inter- 
national   congress,    there    would    follow    participation 


142  WORLD   ORGANIZATION 

in  regulations  tending  to  establisli  similar  conditions 
around  the  world  among  all  nations  represented  in  the 
congress.  In  the  United  States  over  thirty  states  and 
territories  have  joined  the  effort  for  larger  unity  in 
state  procedure  by  the  appointment  of  commissioners 
on  the  uniformity  of  legislation.  Effort  in  a  similar 
direction  would  be  one  of  the  earliest  necessities  felt 
by  a  world  legislature.  Indeed,  there  is  in  sight  already 
in  this  and  other  fields  abundance  of  material  for 
world  legislation  for  several  sessions. 

One  of  the  conditions  which  promotes  j^eace  between 
the  states  of  the 'United  States  is  that  wherever  any 
citizen  may  be  he  is  fiee  to  enjoy  whatever  form  of 
religion  he  prefers.  He  may  be  a  Christian,  Moham- 
medan, or  pagan,  as  he  pleases,  if  only  he  preserves 
the  peace  and  lives  a  decent  life.  World  peace  will  be 
unspeakably  promoted  if  there  prevails  such  a  system 
of  world  law  that  when  a  man  goes  into  any  part  of 
the  world  he  will  be  free  to  worship  God  after  any 
form  he  prefers.  Other  liberties  not  now  known  in  all 
countries  may  be  expected  in  the  growing  toleration 
and  homogeneity  of  the  world. 

But  world  law  which  secures  personal  rights  and 
liberty  having  been  established  there  will  arise  a  far 
greater  freedom  of  movement  among  the  peoples  of  the 
world.  Mutual  concessions  will  be  made  for  the  sake 
of  securing  to  each  the  advantages  given  to  the  citizens 
of  the  most  favored  nation.  Thus  trade  and  profit  would 
become  increasingly  possible.  National  belief  that  it 
was  necessary  to  expand  by  conquest  in  order  to  find 
security  for  religion,  for  tiade,  or  for  property  rights 


WOULD  OltGANIZATIOxV  SECURES  PEACE      143 

would  dissipate  in  the  presence  of  universal  toleration 
and  universal  opportunity.  Japan  could  expand  into 
Korea  without  feeling  that  she  must  dominate  it  politi- 
cally. Kussia  would  find  her  ice-free  seaport  witliout 
becoming  a  menace  to  Japan.  England  could  trade  in 
India  without  holding  hundreds  of  millions  of  people 
her  political  subjects.  The  United  States  could  sell 
cotton  cloth  and  machinery  in  China  without  inciden- 
tally holding  a  nation  of  8,000,000  Filipinos.  The  Boers 
could  govern  themselves,  meeting  the  outlander  issue 
under  local  conditions,  without  being  forced  into  the 
British  Empire.  So  much,  and  much  more  like  it,  would 
be  accomplished  under  a  system  of  world  law. 

But  tlie  world  court  would  carry  the  probability  of 
peace  to  a  certainty.  As  our  national  courts  have  juris- 
diction over  issues  involving  parties  other  than  the 
residents  of  one  state,  so  the  world  court  would  be  a 
tribunal  before  which  national  differences  could  be 
tried  and  settled  by  the  highest  judicial  ability  the 
human  race  could  produce.  Nations  would  be  in  their 
organic  relation  to  one  another  as  parts  of  the  common 
whole.  Occasion  for  differences  would  be  reduced  to 
such  minor  matters  that  not  only  would  the  honor 
of  each  contestant  be  satisfied  by  the  court  procedure, 
but  the  material  interests  of  each  would  be  promoted 
far  more  than  by  any  possible  resort  to  force.  For  it 
must  be  remembered  in  connection  with  the  truth  that 
only  minor  matters  as  judged  by  present  issues  would 
come  before  tiiat  court,  that  in  the  relations  of  tlie 
nations  there  could  arise  no  question  of  the  destruction 
of  one  nation  by  another.    By  the  free  opportunities  for 


144  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

race  expansion  into  territories  of  other  races  offered  to 
all  who  desired  to  trade  or  travel  or  live  elsewhere, 
world  law  would  remove  all  pretext  for  resort  to  force. 
IVIore  than  that,  as  has  actually  occurred  under  the  con- 
cert of  Powers  in  Europe,  there  would  be  such  jealousy 
to  maintain  the  status  quo  territorially  that  the  public 
opinion  of  the  entire  world  would  be  against  any  one 
Power  which  should  undertake  to  destroy  the  existence 
of  any  other,  however  small.  And  the  concert  itself 
illustrates  the  growings  and  tremendous  strength  of 
world  opinion,  especially  when  backed  by  the  moral  law. 

Other  questions  than  existence  or  integrity  of  terri- 
tory would  be  settled  by  the  world  court,  and  the  pub- 
lic opinion  of  the  world  would  be  powerful  to  influence 
the  losing  side  to  accept  the  verdict  without  resort  to 
force.  In  any  event  acceptance  would  not  involve  dis- 
honor in  the  eyes  of  others,  because  it  would  be  a  ver- 
dict by  the  world  court  and  acceptance  would  certainly 
entail  less  loss  of  prestige  or  property  —  to  say  nothing 
of  life  —  than  a  resort  to  arms. 

The  details  of  the  development  of  the  world  executive 
are  not  essential  to  the  taking  of  the  first  steps  for 
world  organization  for  the  sake  of  world  peace.  Present 
arrangements,  such  as  exist  in  the  case  of  the  special 
world  congresses  which  have  acted  upon  particular  sub- 
jects, suffice  for  present  needs.  The  main  elements 
needed  first  are  the  legislative  and  the  judicial  depart- 
ments, and  these  are  already  so  near  realization  that 
recognition  of  the  situation  by  the  nations  will  promote 
the  disposition  of  the  people  everywhere  to  hasten  what 
is  so  surely  approaching. 


VVUUI.U  UiaiANlZATlON   SECUllES  TEACE      145 

With  world  urgauiziiiion  secure  there  would  disap- 
pear some  of  the  present  problems  which  desti'oy  tlie 
liiiaiicial  health  of  Europe  and  put  a  burden  upon  the 
United  States.  With  the  danger  removed  that  national 
existence  might  be  destroyed,  with  the  preservation  of 
territorial  integrity  assured,  with  substantial  justice 
(even  witli  the  risk  of  occasional  errois)  [)roniised  by  a 
world  court,  the  problem  of  disarmament  would  be 
solved.  This  of  itself  would  be  of  incalculable  worth. 
The  revival  of  industry,  the  decline  of  militarism,  the 
decay  of  national  jealousies,  the  promotion  of  interna- 
tional intercourse,  the  exchange  of  national  products 
on  better  terms,  and  other  widespread  consequences 
would  follow  the  recognition  by  the  nations  of  the 
Nature  of  Tilings. 

To  the  consummation  of  political  unity  there  is  no 
doubt  —  so  believe  those  who  are  active  in  this  move- 
ment —  that  the  world  will  ultimately  come.  They  are 
not  prophesying  whether  that  consummation  is  near  or 
remote.  Tiiat  it  is  coming  and  that  it  will  be  of  incal- 
cuhible  benefit  when  it  does  come  are  suflicient  premises 
upon  which  to  build  the  most  diligent  work  possible 
for  its  speedy  coming.  While  there  must  be  a  ripening 
of  events  for  this  end,  and  while  time  must  elapse  for 
the  operation  of  forces  beyond  our  control,  yet  it  is  no 
less  true  that  much  depends  upon  direct  human  agency. 
The  law  of  opportunity  improved  holds  as  fully  in  this 
field  as  in  others,  —  as  in  the  establishment  of  the  Hague 
Arbitration  Court,  for  instance.  The  curse  of  opportu- 
nity neglected  hangs  over  those  who  counsel  neglect 
as  truly  as  over  any  others  who  fail  to  rise  to  the  full 


146  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

height  of  their  opportunity  and  responsibility.  Subjects 
are  waiting  in  abundance  for  the  action  of  the  regular 
congress  of  nations,  or  world  legislature.  Obstacles  are 
no  more  insurmountable  than  they  were  for  the  Hague 
Court.  Indeed,  the  success  of  that  effort  guarantees  and 
prophesies  success  in  this.  The  cause  itself  is  momen- 
toiis  enough,  magnificent  enough,  and  inspiring  enough 
to  call  out  patient,  untiring,  and  self-sacrificing  effort. 
For  the  encouragement  of  the  faint-hearted  may  be 
added  the  recent  record  of  facts  accomplished.  This 
twentieth  century,  yet  very  young,  lias  seen  a  marked 
advance  in  the  principal  avenues  which  lead  to  world 
organization  and  world  peace.  Progressive  men  in  the 
Old  World  and  the  New  are  actively  supporting  the 
direct  movement  for  the  political  unity  of  the  world, 
which  had  not  begun  when  the  century  opened.  Arbi- 
tration treaties  have  been  multiplied.  The  mind  of  the 
world  has  so  far  turned  toward  peace  that  the  problem 
is  to-day  one  of  method  rather  than  of  the  dispositions 
of  the  nations.  The  pioneer  work  has  been  done.  It  is 
only  necessary  to  maintain  the  present  impetus  and  to 
guide  it  rightly,  and  the  signs  of  the  future  reveal 
clearly  a  large  increase  in  the  impetus  and  a  finer  skill 
in  directing  its  course. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

WORLD  PEACE 

Peace  as  an  end  in  itself  is  a  sufficient  motive 
for  all  that  has  been  said  and  sung  and  done  for  it. 
But  world  peace,  great  as  it  is  in  itself,  is  only  a  means 
to  a  greater  end  wlien  the  possible  future  of  the  unity 
of  the  nations  is  foreseen.  World  peace  would  be  merely 
the  leveling  of  the  roadbed  and  the  laying  of  the  track 
for  the  progress  of  the  prosperity  and  development  of 
the  nations  which  would  surely  follow.  Most  of  us  are 
not  accustomed  to  think  in  larger  terms  than  those  of 
our  nation.  Our  plans  for  the  progress  of  the  world 
are  generally  limited  by  our  national  boundaries,  and 
patriotism  is  our  highest  political  virtue.  But  the  vir- 
tue of  "•  worldism  "  (if  we  may  coin  the  word)  is  no  more 
contradictory  to  the  spirit  of  patriotism  than  patriotism  is 
contrary  to  state  pride  or  to  loyalty  to  the  interests  of 
one's  own  city  or  town.  It  is  necessary  to  rise  higher 
in  our  mental  viewpoint  if  we  are  to  get  a  practical  out^ 
look  for  the  future.  We  must  overtop  our  national 
boundaries  and  include  the  whole  world.  This  is  not 
sentiment,  it  is  practical  business,  —  for  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  the  future  must  include  the  whole 
world  in  its  outlook  and  that  the  thinker  who  limits 
his  view  by  the  boundaries  of  his  nation  will  miss  so 
much  of  the  field  of  business   and  progress  that  his 

147 


148  WORLD   ORGANIZATION 

opinions  will  count  for  nothing,  while  his  patriotism 
will  be  rated  as  a  very  narrow  sentiment  not  worthy  of 
an  intelligent  being  of  modern  times. 

Supremely  practical,  above  all  reforms  aside  from  the 
Christian  religion  which  ever  appealed  to  the  sober 
judgment  and  to  the  enthusiasm  of  mankind,  the  sub- 
lime cause  of  world  organization  has  now  in  the  fullness 
of  time  come  before  the  world  and  by  the  truth  which 
inheres  in  it  demands  the  world's  attention.  It  promises 
specific,  positive,  practiced,  and  inconceivably  beneficent 
results  as  the  consequences  of  its  adoption. 

First  and  greatest,  there  would  be  realized  the  polit- 
ical self-consciousness  of  mankind,  hitherto  never 
achieved.  The  world,  unified  and  intelligent,  would  for 
the  first  time  in  human  history  come  to  the  grandeur 
of  its  existence  as  one,  and  would  feel  the  thrill  of 
intelligent  unity  as  it  first  said  '■'•  I  "  of  itself.  National 
self-consciousness  has  already  been  attained,  world  self- 
consciousness  has  not.  When  it  shall  have  been  attained 
the  united  race,  knowing  its  linlimited  powers,  looking 
over  the  earth  and  recognizing  its  directorship  amid  all 
the  forces  of  nature  and  man,  feeling  its  strength  and 
realizing  its  boundless  opportunity,  will  say  "  I  will." 
Thus  and  then  would  be  accomplished  the  grandest 
revolution  in  human  history.  The  world  would  have 
found  itself,  would  have  come  into  self-consciousness, 
realized  its  true  supremacy,  and  discerned  its  opportu- 
nity. It  would  be  thenceforth  and  forever  a  new  being. 
All  the  preceding  centuries,  it  is  hardly  exaggeration 
to  say,  would  count  for  almost  nothing  in  the  existence 
of  mankind  as  an  organic  whole.    They  would  be  merely 


WOULD    I'EACE  1-19 

the  preliminary  stages ;  they  would  be  as  the  clays  of 
separation  and  dispersion,  or  as  the  chaos  of  the  fire  mist 
before  the  solid  sun  and  planets  of  the  solar  system  came 
into  being. 

Following  the  dawn  of  self-consciousness  for  mankind 
would  come  during  the  centuries,  —  but  speedily,  it 
must  be  presumed,  considering  the  rapid  succession  of 
events  in  our  own  times,  —  the  notable  development  of 
the  intellectual  and  moial  character  of  the  world  as  a 
whole.  World  enthusiasm  would  arise,  —  something  as 
much  greater  than  enthusiasm  for  the  nation  as  mankind 
is  greater  than  the  nation.  Worldism  would  tower  above 
patriotism  as  the  world  towers  above  fatherland,  and  the 
directorship  of  the  forces  of  the  earth  would  bring  the 
products  of  all  parts  of  the  earth  to  the  service  of  men 
in  every  part.  Purity,  strength,  and  growth  would  be 
ideals  constantly  in  realization  as  the  world  saw  its  true 
position  in  creation  and  discerned  the  higher  truths 
above  it  shaping  its  development  and  satisfying  its 
aspirations. 

World  organization  having  secured  world  peace  there 
would  follow  a  positive  improvement  of  the  moral,  intel- 
lectual, and  physical  nature  of  the  individuals  of  the 
race.  Laws  of  heredity  would  bring  their  beneficent 
fruits  and  many  evils  of  hatred  and  war  would  disap- 
pear. Records  of  public  ofiicials  show  that  persons  born 
during  our  civil  war  have  a  noticeably  different  disposi- 
tion from  those  born  during  times  of  peace.  How  far 
the  generalization  should  rightly  be  carried  is  a  question, 
but  the  facts  recorded  show  that  the  mental  and  moral 
traits  of  the  persons  born  during  those  years  who  came 


150  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

afterward  under  the  discipline  and  care  of  a  public 
institution  were  more  turbulent  and  willful  than  those 
of  persons  born  at  other  times.  This  is  not  strange 
when  the  laws  of  heredity  are  considered. 

Now  broaden  the  operation  of  those  laws  to  include 
the  world.  Remove  from  mankind  the  extremity  of 
passion  which  rages  during  war  and  stamps  its  impress 
not  only  upon  the  participants  in  bloody  and  brutal 
scenes,  but  also  upon  the  people  of  other  nations  who 
are  influenced  by  the  wqx  spirit  and  whose  moral  ideas 
are  infected  by  the  war  standard.  One  great  source  of 
turbulence,  anarchy,  crime,  passion,  melancholia,  and 
insanity  would  be  removed.  The  effect  of  the  mind 
upon  the  body  would  be  relieved  from  the  depressing 
and  disorganizing  tendencies  of  violence  and  hate. 
Men  would  be  stronger,  women  would  be  more  beautiful 
—  taking  the  great  mass  of  humanity  as  a  whole  —  under 
the  reign  of  peace  tlian  under  the  distorting  influences 
of  war.  Increased  strength  and  vigor  of  body,  a  more 
serene  and  sustained  frame  of  mind,  a  keener  and  more 
enduring  intellectual  power,  a  sunnier  view  of  life,  and 
a  more  persistent  and  rational  method  of  overcoming  its 
evils,  —  all  these  consequences  ^vould  certainly  follow 
the  achievement  of  self-consciousness  by  the  world. 

All  this  will  be  accomplished  in  spite  of  the  destruc- 
tive efforts  of  the  empire  builders  who  have  made  their 
way  to  temporary  consolidations  of  races  over  the  slaugh- 
tered defenders  of  home,  family,  and  independence. 
Greece  under  Alexander,  Rome  under  Csesar,  France 
under  Napoleon,  and  many  other  imperial  peoples  un- 
der ambitious  and  reckless  rulers  have  aspired  to  the 


WORLD  PEACE  151 

unification  of  the  world  by  the  death  of  all  opponents. 
But  the  cement  of  blood  was  not  living  growth  and  the 
fragments  inevitably  fell  apart.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
growth  of  organic  unity,  under  which  every  nation,  small 
and  great,  has  its  rights  preserved  and  under  which 
every  person  enjoys  full  liberty  to  make  the  most  and 
the  best  of  himself,  binds  together  in  genuine  unity. 
This  unity  will  be  permanent.  Under  it  the  world 
will  continue  to  advance  until  its  purified  moral  sense 
will  make  hosts  of  men  bygone  appear  upon  a  horribly 
low  plane  of  immorality.  The  revulsion  at  the  traits  of 
the  past  will  be  even  stronger  than  our  horror  at  the 
orgies  of  the  Saturnalia  or  the  human  sacrifices  of 
the  ancient  heathen  empires.  Peace,  with  improved 
heredity  and  the  constant  advance  of  the  race,  which  we 
may  reasonably  expect,  will  biing  this  era  of  purity, 
liberty,  and  power. 

But  there  will  be  further  great  progress  in  the  higher 
fields.  Peace,  not  force,  is  for  the  advantage  of  reason, 
and  with  world  peace  will  come  the  real  grip  of  the 
religious  forces  of  the  world  with  each  other  in  a  contest 
for  supremacy.  Fire  and  sword  may  have  availed  to 
spread  Mohammedanism,  torture  may  have  supported 
the  propaganda  by  the  Inquisition,  and  paganism  may 
have  repressed  Christianity  for  a  time  by  wholesale  cru- 
cifixions and  burnings  ;  but  in  these  times  the  supremacy 
of  religion  must  be  relieved  by  other  means  than  fear 
of  physical  death.  There  must  be  a  conflict  in  the  spirit- 
ual field  and  tiie  victory  will  be  to  the  strongest  spiritual 
power  ;  true  and  false  religion  will  struggle,  to  the  death 
of  the  false,  but  the  struggle  will  be  without  physical 


152  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

violence.  Hence  world  peace  will  be  the  quickest  and 
surest  means  whereby  the  end  of  religious  error,  super- 
stition, idolatry,  and  their  accompanying  vices  can  be 
compassed. 

In  the  same  way  the  surest  and  quickest  end  of  all 
errors  and  false  tlieories  in  science  and  all  mistaken  prac- 
tices in  large  matters  of  government  whereby  the  progress 
of  peoples  is  hindered  will  be  reached  by  the  establish- 
ment of  world  peace.  Opportunity  will  be  afforded  for 
the  rapid  spread  of  the^  truth.  Error  will  find  itself 
helpless  in  the  presence  of  truth.  Passion  and  preju- 
dice will  be  robbed  of  their  present  power.  Hatred  of 
foreigners  will  no  longer  be  used  to  bolster  up  wrong 
ideas  in  science,  education,  and  government,  and  a  rapid 
advance  in  the  right  direction  will  become  possible. 

In  the  industrial  realm  the  effect  of  world  peace 
will  be  felt  no  less  universally.  That  peace  will  have 
been  accomplished  by  the  union  of  moral  and  intellectual 
forces  making  for  justice  to  the  weak,  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  prerogatives  of  the  truly  strong,  for  the  econ- 
omy of  wealth,  and  for  the  joint  progress  of  all  under 
conditions  consistent  Avith  the  prosperity  of  all.  These 
same  forces  will  operate  in  the  industrial  world  for  the 
settlement  of  industrial  wars  by  other  means  than  force. 
That  exceedingly  difficult  and  complicated  problems 
demanding  solution  before  justice  can  be  secured  con- 
front employers  and  employees  cannot  be  denied;  such 
are  the  measures  of  time,  strength,  brains,  and  charac- 
ter as  productive  factors  in  terms  of  money.  But  the 
influence  of  the  resort  to  justice  instead  of  to  arms  for 
the  settlement  of  international  difficulties  will  prevail  in 


WORLD  PEACE  153 

the  industrial  world,  and,  whatever  the  difficulties,  it  is 
safe  to  predict  that  force,  the  worst  remedy  of  all,  will 
not  be  employed.  Prevention  of  waste  and  destruction, 
corresponding  to  the  prevention  of  the  waste  and  destruc- 
tion of  war,  will  ensue,  and  thus  the  material  welfare  of 
the  world  will  be  largely  promoted. 

Take  a  step  to  a  plane  lower  but  still  one  of  impor- 
tance, in  which  world  peace  will  assert  itself.  Nations 
and  local  communities  establish  to-day  centers  whereon 
are  lavished  millions  for  the  adornment  and  pleasure  of 
the  people  —  in  palaces,  parks,  boulevards,  art  museums, 
and  whatever  in  tlie  material  field  may  appeal  to  the 
enjoyment  and  uplift  of  the  entire  body  of  people  con- 
tributing or  taxed  therefor.  Enlarge  this  possibility  to 
include  the  entire  world.  What  organized  states  have 
done  organized  mankind  will  do,  and  the  present  beauties 
and  pleasures  of  palace,  park,  river,  statuary,  arcliitec- 
ture,  and  music  for  the  people  will  be  only  beginnings 
of  what  will  be  enjoyed  by  the  generations  to  come, 
whose  wealth  will  not  be  si)ent  to  destroy  each  other, 
whose  talent  will  not  be  devoted  to  inventions  to  out- 
class other  infernal  devices,  whose  ambition  will  not  be 
to  rule  amid  blood  of  brethren  or  over  unwilling  races ; 
but  all  of  whose  powers  and  wealth  will  be  for  mutual 
service. 

Still  further,  as  the  power  of  organized  nations  is  felt 
not  only  at  the  centers  of  population  to  beautify  and 
give  mental  and  moral  uj)lift,  but  is  felt  also  at  the  out- 
skirts, destroying  the  worst  adverse  conditions,  letting 
the  light  from  the  center  shine  into  the  darkest  places, 
and  raising  up  the  most  degraded  and  unfortunate  of 


154  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

the  people,  so  the  power  of  organized  mankind  acting 
under  the  beneficence  of  world  peace  will  shine  into  the 
darkest  corners  of  the  earth,  bringing  the  most  remote 
and  secluded  into  the  companionship  of  the  race,  reduc- 
ing natural  obstacles,  extending  means  of  communica- 
tion which  may  not  be  financially  profitable,  and  raising 
to  a  higher  level  the  lowest  places  and  peoples  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Whatever  nations,  with  their  power 
of  central  administration  and  of  taxation,  are  doing  in 
the  light  of  national  self-consciousness  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  nation  in  morals,  intellect,  and  material 
wealth,  all  of  that  and  more  may  rightly  l)e  expected  of 
the  world  in  the  light  of  its  self-consciousness,  with  a 
central  world  administration,  with  the  power  to  collect 
means  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  with  ability  to 
command  the  best  brains  of  the  world  for  the  service  of 
the  world. 

Take  one  further  step.  Barriers  to  travel  to  all 
centers  and  to  the  remote  corners  of  the  earth  being 
removed,  the  resistless  instinct  of  all  men  to  learn  more 
of  the  world  they  live  in  will  be  indulged  far  more 
than  is  possible  now.  Men  work  in  order  that  they  may 
have  leisure.  They  make  money  in  order  to  spend  it. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  hold  them  down  at  home 
unless  they  were  strapped  down.  Travel  is  now  and 
always  will  be  as  long  as  h'lman  nature  remains  what 
it  is  a  great  and  genuine  pleasure  for  the  large  majority 
of  the  race.  Under  conditions  of  world  peace,  with  rail 
and  steamer  lines  running  to  all  parts  of  the  earth  (leav- 
ing the  forecast  for  flying  machines  to  await  the  com- 
pletion of  the  invention),  there  will  be  a  rush  of  travel 


WORLD  PEACE  155 

far  exceeding  what  is  known  to-day.  Rates  will  be 
much  lower  by  reason  of  the  magnitude  of  (he  service. 
Hotels  will  thrive  and  accommodate  beyond  present 
dreams.  Markets  of  goods  will  follow  far  in  excess  of 
present  experience.  Trade  and  transportation  every- 
where will  have  such  a  quickening  as  armed  conquests, 
subsidies,  and  bounties  can  never  accomplish.  Added 
to  this  will  be  the  positive  result  of  the  far  better 
acquaintance  of  the  peoples  with  each  other  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  This  will  mean  the  removal  of 
misunderstandings,  the  formation  of  friendsliips,  and 
doubtless  the  promotion  of  maniages  between  different 
peoples,  the  growth  of  mutual  toleration,  the  welding 
of  the  nations  together  into  a  social  as  well  as  a  political 
unity.  If  any  prediction  is  moderate  and  certain  of  ful- 
fillment, it  is  such  a  prediction  as  this,  based  upon  the 
course  of  the  world  tlms  far  and  the  elements  of  human 
nature.  It  is  not  predicting  the  millennium,  but  simply 
pointing  out  to  those  whose  interest  it  is  to  work  for 
woiid  peace  what  some  of  their  rewards  will  be. 

All  this  forecasting  of  the  consequences  of  world 
peace  by  no  means  implies  that  there  will  not  be  plenty 
of  evil  in  the  world.  At  present  in  spite  of  national 
laws  crime  abounds  and  criminals  nuilti[)ly.  So  unhap- 
pily it  will  doubtless  continue  to  be  under  world  unity 
in  one  political  body  —  although  certain  classes  of  evils 
should  gradually  disappear.  At  every  point  the  devil 
will  put  in  his  work.  Mischief,  ignorance,  malice,  and 
hate  will  still  mar  human  life  and  must  still  be  battled 
with,  albeit  on  some  higher  fields.  But  the  organic  form 
of  the  world  will  be  complete  and  under  that  form  the 


156  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

world  will  advance  in  prosperity  and  in  civilization  far 
faster  than  would  otherwise  be  possible,  just  as  the 
United  States  has  advanced  incalculably  faster  than  if 
every  state  had  been  politically  independent  of  every 
other  and  if  there  had  been  no  organic  head  to  direct 
the  development  of  the  whole.  Unity  for  the  race,  with 
evil,  is  as  superior  for  the  good  of  the  world  as  unity 
for  the  nation,  with  evil,  has  been  superior  to  disorgani- 
zation. Union  of  states  into  the  nation  has  proved  prac- 
tical. World  unity  is  no  more  a  dream  than  national 
unity  and  will  as  surely  come  ;  and  no  mind  can  fully 
imagine  the  benefits  which  will  follow. 


In  the  unmeasured  centuries  of  the  past  there  has 
not  been  an  era  which  organically  equals  in  importance 
for  the  world  the  era  in  which  we  live ;  and  in  the 
incalculable  future  there  will  not  be  one  of  equal 
moment  for  mankind.  This  I  believe  to  be  the  sober, 
unexaggerated  statement  which  the  plain  truth  justifies. 
Regarding  the  past  the  history  of  the  world  shows  that 
organic  unity  has  never  existed.  Separation  of  nations 
and  races,  jealousy,  enmity,  hostility,  and  war,  —  these 
have  been  the  principal  facts  through  all  of  human  his- 
tory. Nations  have  asserted  absolute  sovereignty.  They 
have  regarded  their  neighbors  as  legitimate  objects  of 
destructive  attacks.  They  have  formed  alliances  for  the 
sake  of  selfish  ends,  never  with  any  idea  of  a  larger 
whole,  of  which  the  nations  were  subordinate  parts. 
Mankind  has  existed  in  fragments,  as  far  as  its  unity  is 
concerned,  from  the  days  of  tlie  cave  dwellers  to  the 


WORLD  PEACE  157 

present  era.  Organic  union  is  now  for  the  first  time 
definitely  in  sight.  Existence  is  the  most  important 
fact  for  any  being,  and  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the  era  in 
which  this  organic  existence  is  consummated  is  more 
important  tlian  any  which  has  gone  before. 

But  it  is  also  reasonable  to  affirm  that  no  era  in  the 
future  will  ever  be  more  critical  for  mankind  than  that 
in  which  we  live,  —  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that,  in 
comparison  with  the  ages  of  which  we  are  now  speak- 
ing, a  hundred  years  may  rightly  be  regarded  as  a  sliort 
time.  In  the  present  era  there  will  be  consummated 
some  sort  of  organic  union  of  mankind.  It  will  not  be 
as  well  fitted  a  union  as  will  be  attained  in  the  future ; 
but  this  era  of  formation  is  the  time  when  some  degree 
of  organic  relation  will  be  established.  Improvements 
will  be  made  in  the  future,  but  they  will  be  reforms 
upon  the  past ;  no  new  departure  will  be  involved  which 
will  compare  in  importance  with  the  first  session  of  a 
world  legislature  meeting  with  the  deliberate  intention 
of  being  a  precedent  in  legislation  for  all  the  world  by 
representatives  of  all  the  world.  Sucli  an  event  will 
be  more  vital  in  the  organic  development  of  the  human 
race  than  any  organic  event  which  has  yet  occurred  or, 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  ever  will  occur  after  it.  When  it 
has  been  organized  the  world  will  do  things  which  will 
accomplish  more  for  mankind  than  this  first  meeting, 
for  mankind  by  organization  will  just  have  found  its 
head,  and  a  being  with  a  head  and  organs  for  action 
will  do  more  than  a  being  without  a  head  and  impotent 
through  lack  of  organs.  But  the  getting  of  the  head 
and  the  making  it  possible  for  brains  and  organs  to  act 


158  AVORLD   ORGANIZATION 

is  of  itself  more  important  for  that  being  than  anything 
which  the  head  may  devise  or  originate  for  the  hands 
to  do.  We  stand  at  a  focus  in  human  history,  to  which 
all  previous  forces  converge  and  from  which  in  changed 
form  they  diverge  and  broaden  out  into  new  expansive- 
ness,  full  of  new  power  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  as  a 
whole.  This  is  an  era  to  which  the  world  prophets  have 
looked  with  bright  anticipation.  It  is  the  era  to  which 
the  world  will  hereafter  look  back  with  intense  interest 
as  the  ])eriod  in  which  the  diverse  forces  in  the  human 
race  were  brought  into  organized  form,  when  the  dif- 
ferent fragments  found  their  rightful  places  in  the 
organic  whole,  when  collisions  ceased  in  the  perception 
that  there  was  a  higher  good  for  each  in  the  unity  and 
peace  of  the  whole,  when  the  nobler  love  of  man  for 
man  asserted  itself  superior  to  all  form  of  glory  gained 
by  military  conquest  and  slaughter,  when  the  gains  of 
trade  were  found  to  be  inferior  to  the  gains  of  friendli- 
ness, and  when  the  thrill  of  organic  unity  superseded 
forever  the  gratification  of  national  domination  and  the 
cruel  exultation  of  the  triumph  of  man  over  man. 

These  years,  therefore,  in  which  we  live  are  wonder- 
ful years.  No  people  before  us  and  no  people  after  us 
have  seen  or  will  see  such  events.  Though  doubtless 
inferior  in  beneficence  to  future  events,  when  we  con- 
sider the  unimaginable  advantages  yet  to  be  enjoyed, 
which  inhere  in  world  peace  and  world  prosperity,  they 
surpass  in  critical  importance  all  world  events  before 
and  after.  This  is  the  clear  and  impressive  truth  with 
which  we  press  forward  to  accomplish  the  estal)lishment 
of  the  permanent  world  state. 


APPENDIXES 

APPENDIX  A 

THE  PETITION  OF  1902 

To  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts:  The  undersigned,  citizens 
of  Massachusetts,  respectfully  petition  you  to  adopt  resolutions 
asking  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  empower  and  request 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to  invite  the  nations  of  the 
world  to  send  each  a  representative  to  a  meeting  for  the  purpose 
of  establishing  and  setting  in  motion,  as  far  as  practicable,  a  world 
legislature.     "We  present  this  petition  for  the  following  I'easons : 

We  hold  that  mankind  is,  in  reality,  one  organic  body;  that 
all  the  parts  of  that  body  are  actually  in  vital  relations  to  each 
other  by  force  of  laws  not  enacted  by  men  but  inherent  in  the 
nature  of  the  organism;  that  the  operation  of  these  beneficent 
laws  will  be  facilitated  by  recognizing  and  obeying  them  as  far 
as  is  in  human  power;  that  thus  far  in  the  history  of  mankind 
the  operation  of  these  laws  has  been  imperfect  and  tliat  to-day 
it  is  impeded  by  the  separation  of  mankind  into  many  political 
bodies,  each  of  which  claims  absolute  sovereignty  over  its  internal 
aifairs  and  its  external  relations. 

Thus  far  the  relations  of  nations  with  each  other  have  been 
regulated  by  treaties.  We  believe  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  a 
farther  advance.  Since  mankind  is  organically  one,  it  is  reason- 
able that  it  should  have  a  means  whereby  it  can  express  its  judg- 
ment and  its  will;  in  other  words,  that  there  should  be  a  legis- 
lative body  to  serve  all  mankind  as  the  several  nations  are  now 
served  by  the  legislative  branches  of  their  governments  where 
such  branches  exist. 

159 


IGO  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

We  look  forward  to  the  development  of  the  organic  political 
unity  of  mankind  until  each  nation  shall  be  represented  in  the 
world  legislature,  when  the  concerns  of  all  mankind  will  be  acted 
upon  by  the  representatives  of  all  mankind  for  the  peace  and 
welfare  of  all. 

We  regard  the  union  of  the  sovereign  states  of  the  United  States 
of  America  as  a  fitting  illustration  of  the  possible  union  of  the 
sovereign  nations  into  the  recognized  body  politic  of  mankind. 
As  the  several  sovereign  states  voluntarily  relinquished  certain  of 
their  claims  of  sovereignty  and  thus  realized  a  higher  political 
unity,  so  a  grander  union  of  mankind  than  is  possible  by  inter- 
national treaties  will  be  realized  when  the  nations,  surrendering 
their  claims  of  sovereignty  in  such  respects  as  shall  be  found  nec- 
essary and  practicable,  come  formally  into  the  unity  in  which  they 
already  exist  by  the  very  laws  of  their  being. 

We  believe  that  the  establishment  of  this  proposed  world  legis- 
lature will  promote  in  a  high  degree  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
toward  men,  and  that  the  formal  recognition  of  the  unity  of  the 
race  by  means  of  a  suitable  organ  for  its  activity  will  greatly  hasten 
the  advance  of  the  race  in  securing  all  the  good  things  of  earth. 

This  petition  was  prepared  by  the  author  of  the  present 
work,  and  supported  by  himself  and  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead 
in  addresses  at  the  hearing  by  the  Committee  on  Federal 
Relations  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature.  A  petition 
identical  with  the  above,  wdth  the  necessary  change  of 
words  at  the  beginning,  addressed  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  was  forwarded  to  Senator  George  F.  Hoar 
of  Massachusetts  and  its  receipt  acknowledged  by  hun  at 
Washington  in  a  letter  dated  March  26,  1902.  The  legis- 
lature of  Massachusetts  in  1902  referred  the  above  petition 
to  the  legislature  of  1903,  and  in  the  latter  year  it  was 
supported  by  the  names  of  over  750  petitioners,  largely 
secured  by  the  personal  effort  and  expense  of  an  enthusi- 
astic woman,  working  tirelessly  for  the  cause. 


APPENDIX  B  161 


APPENDIX  B 

PETITION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEACE  SOCIETY 
FOR  A  STATED  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS, 
PRESENTED  TO  THE  MASSACHUSETTS 
LEGISLATURE  IN   1903 

At  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  the  directors  of  the 
American  Peace  Society  presented  the  following  petition 
for  a  regular  international  congress  : 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Peace  Society,  with 
headquarters  in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  respectfully  petition  your 
honorable  body  to  adopt  a  resolution  requesting  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  to  authoi'ize  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  invite  the  governments  of  the  world  to  join  in  establishing,  in 
whatever  way  they  may  judge  expedient,  a  regular  international 
congress  to  meet  at  stated  periods  —  say  every  seven  years  —  to 
deliberate  upon  the  various  questions  of  common  interest  to  the 
nations  and  to  make  recommendations  thereon  to  the  governments. 

The  following  reasons  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  time  is  ripe 
for  such  action : 

1.  The  nations  are  to-day  united,  as  never  before,  in  commer- 
cial, economic,  scientific,  social,  and  philanthropic  relations,  and 
their  mutual  interests  are  constantly  and  rapidly  increasing. 

2.  The  questions  constantly  arising  which  concern  them  all  so 
intimately  rec^uire  their  united  action  for  proper  solution,  as  the 
governments  themselves  have  long  practically  recognized. 

3.  Within  the  past  century  about  thirty  important  international 
congresses  and  conferences  have  been  held  for  the  discussion  and 
adjustment  of  matters  of  immediate  and  pressing  importance  — 
an  average  of  one  about  every  three  and  a  half  years.  These 
congresses,  a  list  of  the  more  important  of  which  is  given  below, 
have  been  in  large  measure  successful  and  besides  accomplishing 
the  ends  for  which  they  were  called  have  done  much  to  remove 


162  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

friction    and    prejudice  and  to  promote   harmony  between  the 
nations  and  thereby  the  general  interests  of  all. 

4.  These  congresses  have  not  only  increased  in  frequency  in 
recent  years  and  in  the  number  of  nations  represented  in  them, 
but  they  have  also  tended  to  become  more  and  more  legislative  or 
quasi  legislative,  as  in  the  case  of  the  recent  pan- American  Confer- 
ence, tlie  Brussels  Sugar  Congress,  and  the  Hague  Peace  Conference. 

5.  The  organization  of  an  international  congress  of  the  kind 
here  suggested,  to  meet  at  stated  periods,  v^^ould  therefore  not  be 
an  altogether  new  experiment,  but  would  continue  in  a  regular, 
permanent,  and  more  complete  form,  with  the  increased  efficiency 
and  usefulness  which  permanence  and  regularity  bring,  what  has 
already  been  successfully  tried  on  numerous  occasions. 

6.  The  idea  of  a  world  congress,  on  which  your  honorable  pred- 
ecessors in  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  passed  strong 
resolutions  in  1837  and  1838,  has  made  great  progress  in  recent 
years.  At  the  Hague  Peace  Conference  and  the  pan-American 
Conference  at  Mexico  City  there  was  a  strong  feeling  often 
expressed  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  leading  delegates  that  such 
conferences  ought  to  be  continued  at  regular  intervals.  Not  a  few 
publicists  of  the  day  feel  that  the  time  is  near  when  in  the  larger 
interests  of  humanity  as  a  whole  a  world  congress  with  real  legis- 
lative powers  will  have  to  be  created. 

7.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  proposition  to  organize  a 
regular  congress  for  deliberation  and  recommendation  on  matters 
of  general  international  concern  would  not  meet  with  serious  ob- 
jection in  any  quarter  among  the  nations.  The  creation  of  such 
a  congress,  whose  recommendations  would  require  ratification  by 
the  nations  before  becoming  public  law,  would  not  impose  upon 
the  governments  the  sacrifice  of  any  of  their  sovereignty  and  self- 
direction.  The  work  of  such  an  international  body  would  in  a 
few  decades  enable  the  nations  to  determine  clearly  whether  it 
would  be  expedient  for  them  to  go  further  and  to  develop  the 
organization  into  a  world  congress  with  legislative  powers. 

8.  The  permanent  international  court  for  the  settlement  of 
controversies  between  nations  has  been  set  up  by  the  leading 
Powers  of  the  world  and  is  now  in  successful  operation.     The 


APPENDIX  C  163 

counterpart  and  complement  of  this  court,  to  which  tlie  reference 
of  disputes  is  voluntary,  would  be  a  congress  witli  deliberative 
and  advisory  powers  which  would  perform  an  ('(jiially  important 
service  in  the  development  and  iormulation  of  intcriiational  law 
as  the  court  will  do  in  its  interpretation  and  application. 

9.  The  meeting  of  regular  international  congresses  for  the 
consideration  of  the  various  common  interests  of  the  nations 
would  exert  a  great  and  growing  influence  in  favor  of  amity  and 
mutual  good  will,  would  lessen  the  dang(;rs  of  war,  and  assure 
the  permanence  of  peace  and  the  continuance  of  prosperous  com- 
mercial relations. 

[Here  follows  a  list  of  international  congresses  and  conferences, 
the  same  as  given  in  earlier  pages  of  this  work.  ] 

By  order  of  the  Board  of  Directors, 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  President. 
Benjamin  F.  Trueblood,  Secretary. 


APPENDIX   C 

THE  MASSACHUSETTS  RESOLUTIONS 

Based  on  the  preceding  petitions,  the  following  resolu- 
tions were  passed  unanimously  by  both  branches  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  in  1903 : 

Resolved,  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  be  requested 
to  authorize  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  invite  the 
governments  of  the  world  to  join  in  establishing,  in  whatever 
way  they  may  judge  expedient,  a  regular  international  congress 
to  meet  at  stated  periods  to  deliberate  upon  the  various  questions 
of  common  interest  to  the  nations  and  to  make  recommendations 
thereon  to  the  jjovernments. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the  senior 
senator  and  the  senior  representative  of  Massachusetts  in  Congress 
to  be  presented  in  their  respective  branches. 


164  "WORLD  OHGANIZATION 


APPENDIX  D 

A  MEMORIAL  TO  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF 
REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
RELATIVE  TO  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  AN 
INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS 

This  memorial  was  signed  by  the  attorney-general  and 
all  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court  of  Pennsylvania  and 
by  other  men  prominent  in  the  state's  religious,  legal, 
and  business  life.  It  was  prepared  by  the  Association  of 
Friends  of  Philadelphia  to  further  the  movement  inaugu- 
rated by  the  American  Peace  Society,  which  was  also 
endorsed  by  Governor  Pennypacker. 

Your  petitioners  respectfully  ask  that  Congress  authorize  the 
President  of  the  United  States  to  invite  the  governments  of  the 
world  to  join  in  establishing,  in  whatever  way  they  may  judge 
expedient,  an  international  congress  to  meet  at  stated  periods  and 
deliberate  upon  questions  of  common  interest  to  the  nation  and 
make  recommendations  thereon  to  the  governments. 

Your  petitioners  are  moved  to  join  in  this  request  by  the  fol- 
lowing considerations : 

1.  AVhile  the  j^ermanent  international  court  for  the  settlement 
of  controversies  between  nations  is  set  up  by  the  leading  powers 
of  the  world  and  is  in  successful  operation  at  The  Hague,  yet 
there  is  no  recognized  and  authoritative  code  of  international 
law,  and  for  the  enacting  of  such  a  code  the  proposed  congress  is 
almost  an  essential  supplement,  l)eing  ultimately,  as  we  hope, 
clothed  with  deliberative  power  to  develop  and  formulate  a  system 
of  international  law. 

2.  The  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  recognize  as  never  before 
the  possibility  of  settling  by  judicial  means  many  of  the  differences 
between  nations  formerly  referred  to  the  arbitrament  of  force 
when  diplomacy  and  arbitration  failed. 


APPENDIX  D  165 

3.  Already  between  one,  liuiidied  ami  two  hundred  cases  of 
disputes  between  nations  have  been  settled  by  arbitration. 

4.  Within  the  past  century  about  thirty  important  international 
congresses  and  conferences  have  been  held  for  the  discussion  and 
adjustment  of  matters  of  pressing  importance  and  have  been  in 
a  large  measure  successful,  but  these  congresses  were  of  an 
unauthoritative  and  ephemeral  character  and  could  not  enact 
a  code. 

5.  For  want  of  sucli  a  code  clearly  defining  many  international 
customs  ujion  commercial  and  maritime  questions  constantly  aris- 
ing between  firms  and  individuals,  much  irritation  and  friction 
result  which  are  not  unfrequently  the  ultimate  cause  of  wars. 

For  these  reasons  your  memorialists  believe  that  great  advantage 
would  arise  from  the  existence  of  a  parliament  for  the  discus- 
sion of  such  questions  as  may  concern  nations  in  their  interna- 
tional relations.  Most  peoples,  those  who  claim  to  be  Christian 
peoples  at  least,  appear  now  to  recognize  war  as  an  institution 
disastrous  to  mankind  and  undesirable  and  to  be  avoided  and 
prevented  as  much  as  possible ;  and  seeing  the  wretchedness  and 
sorrow  which  so  largely  accompany  it,  we  believe  it  is  our  duty,  as 
a  nation  foremost  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  claiming  to  ujihold 
righteousness,  to  take  whatever  steps  we  can  which  may  tend  to 
reduce  the  number  of  wars  to  the  smallest  limit  possible. 

To  this  end  your  memorialists  believe  a  world's  congress  or 
parliament  convening  periodically  will  be  a  chief  factor  and  they 
urge  its  establishment  upon  you  at  this  time  as  a  long  step  toward 
that  "  federation  of  the  world  "  which  is  already  foreshadowed  by 
the  close  ties  now  existing  in  the  commercial,  economic,  scientific, 
social,  and  philanthropic  life  of  the  nations. 


166  WORLD   ORGANIZATION 

APPENDIX  E 

REQUEST   OF   THE  INTERPARLIAMENTARY  UNION 

The  following  request  for  the  calling  of  a  second  peace 
conference  was  adopted  unanimously  by  the  Interparlia- 
mentary Union  at  its  session  in  St.  Louis,  September  13, 
1904,  having  been  introduced  by  Hon.  Theodore  E.  Burton 
of  Ohio,  and  supported  by  Count  Apponyi  of  Hungary, 
L»r.  Albert  Gobat  of  Switzerland,  Dr.  G.  B.  Clark  of  Great 
Britain,  the  Marquis  San  Giuliano  of  Italy,  and  Hon.  Philip 
Stanhope  of  Great  Britain : 

Wlwreas,  enlightened  public  opinion  and  the  spirit  of  modern 
civilization  demand  tliat  differences  between  nations  be  settled 
in  the  same  manner  as  controversies  between  individuals,  —  that 
is,  through  courts  of  justice  and  in  conformity  with  well-recognized 
principles  of  law,  —  therefore 

The  Conference  asks  that  the  different  Powers  of  the  entire 
world  delegate  representatives  to  an  international  conference 
which  sliall  meet  at  a  time  and  place  to  be  designated  by  them 
to  deliberate  upon  the  following  questions  : 

(a)  The  subjects  postponed  by  the  Hague  Conference ; 

(b)  The  negotiation  of  arbitration  treaties  between  the  nations 
which  shall  be  represented  in  this  conference ; 

(c)  The  establishment  of  an  international  congress  which  shall 
meet  at  stated  periods  to  discuss  international  questions ; 

And  decides  to  request  respectfully  and  urgently  the  President 
of  tlie  United  States  to  invite  all  the  nations  to  send  representa- 
tives to  such  a  conference. 

The  proposition  for  the  establishment  of  an  international 
congress,  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  three  proposi- 
tions, was  unanimously  embodied  in  the  request  upon  the 
suggestion  of  Dr.  Benjamin  F.  Trueblood,  Secretary  of  the 
American  Peace  Society. 


APPENDIX  F  167 

This  proposition  has  received  the  chief  emphasis  in  vari- 
ous subsequent  articles  and  addresses  by  Hon.  Richard 
P.artholdt,  founder  of  the  Arbitration  Group  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  and  president  of  the  St.  Louis 
meeting  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union.  Mr.  liartholdt, 
in  an  article  in  The  Indepeyident,  May  11,  1905,  submitted 
an  outline  of  organization  for  the  proposed  international 
congress  ;  and  he  worked  zealously  to  secure  most  care- 
ful consideration  of  the  idea  of  such  a  congress  by  the 
Interparliamentary  Union  at  its  meeting  in  Brussels  in 
August,  1905. 

APPENDIX   F 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT'S  PROMISE 

In  the  reply  of  President  Roosevelt  to  the  speech  of 
Dr.  Gobat  at  the  formal  ceremony  at  which  the  request  of 
the  Interparliamentary  Union  was  presented  officially  were 
embodied  the  following  sentences  : 

In  response  to  your  resolutions,  I  sliall  at  an  early  date  ask 
the  other  nations  to  join  in  a  second  congress  at  The  Hague.  I 
feel,  as  I  am  sure  you  do,  that  our  efforts  should  take  the  shai)e 
of  pushing  forward  toward  completion  the  work  already  begun  at 
The  Hague  and  that  whatever  is  now  done  should  appear  not  as 
something  divergent  therefrom,  but  as  a  continuance  thereof. 

The  following  from  President  Roosevelt's  message  to  Con- 
gress, December  5, 1904,  is  his  statement  of  action  taken  : 

Furthermore,  at  the  request  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union,  an 
eminent  body  composed  of  practical  statesmen  from  all  countries, 
I  have  asked  the  Powers  to  join  with  this  government  in  a  second 
Hague  conference,  at  whicli  it  is  hoped  that  the  work  already  so 
ha])pily  l)egun  at  Tlie  Hague  may  be  carried  some  steps  further 
toward  completion. 


168  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

APPENDIX  G 

THE  LETTER  OF  SECRETARY  HAY 

In  accord  with  the  President's  promise,  Secretary  John 
Hay,  under  date  of  October  21,  1904,  sent  a  circular  note 
''^o  the  Representatives  of  the  United  States  accredited  to 
the  Governments  Signatories  to  the  Acts  of  the  Hague 
Conference,  1899,"  in  which,  after  necessary  historical 
statement  and  citation  ^f  the  vote  of  the  Interparlia- 
mentary Union,  occurs  the  following  sentence : 

The  President  directs  that  you  will  bring  the  foregoing  con- 
siderations to  the  attention  of  the  minister  for  foreign  aifairs  of 
the  government  to  which  you  are  accredited  and  in  discreet  con- 
ference with  him  ascertain  to  what  extent  that  government  is 
disposed  to  act  in  the  matter. 

By  this  action,  therefore,  since  the  President's  promise  was 
based  upon  the  request  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union,  and 
since  the  request  was  embodied  verbatim  in  Secretary  Hay's 
letter,  the  movement  to  organize  the  world  i7ito  a  single  polit- 
ical body  was  assured  official  standing  in  the  second  peace 
conference  of  the  nations. 

APPENDIX   H 

THE  POWERS  FAVOR  A  SECOND  PEACE  CONFERENCE 

Following  the  replies  of  the  foreign  governments  to  the 
circular  regarding  a  second  peace  conference  Secretary 
Hay  sent  the  subjoined  circular  note  to  our  representatives 
abroad,  showing  tlie  favorable  reception  of  President 
Roosevelt's  invitation  and  leaving  further  action  to  the 
international  bureau  under  the  control  of  the  permanent 


APPENDIX   II  169 

administrative   council  at  The   Hague,  —  a  course  full  of 
encouragement  to  the  friends  of  the  movement : 

Washington,  D.C,  December  10,  1004. 

To  the  Representatives  of  the  United  States  accredited  to  tlie 
Governments  Signatories  to  the  Acts  of  the  Hague  Conference, 
1899: 

Sir:  By  the  circular  instructions  dated  October  21,  1904,  the 
representatives  of  the  United  States  accredited  to  the  several 
governments  which  took  part  in  the  Peace  Conference  held  at 
The  Hague  in  1899  and  which  joined  in  signing  the  acts  thereof 
were  instructed  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  those  governments  certain 
resolutions  adopted  by  the  Interparliamentary  Union  at  its  annual 
conference  held  at  St.  Louis  in  September  last,  advocating  the 
assembling  of  a  second  peace  conference  to  continue  the  work  of 
the  first,  and  were  directed  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  those 
governments  were  disposed  to  act  in  the  matter. 

The  replies  so  far  received  indicate  that  the  proposition  has 
been  received  with  general  favor.  No  dissent  has  found  expres- 
sion. The  governments  of  Austria-Hungary,  Denmark,  France, 
Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  Luxemburg,  Mexico,  the  Nether- 
lands, Portugal,  Spain,  Sweden  and  Norway,  and  Switzerland 
exhibit  sympathy  with  the  purposes  of  the  proposal  and  generally 
accept  it  in  principle,  with  a  reservation  in  most  cases  of  future 
consideration  of  the  date  of  the  conference  and  the  program  of 
subjects  for  discussion.  The  replies  of  Japan  and  Russia  conveyed 
in  like  terms  a  friendly  recognition  of  the  spirit  and  purposes  of 
the  invitation,  but  on  tlie  part  of  Russia  tlie  reply  was  accom- 
panied by  the  statement  that,  in  the  existing  condition  of  things 
in  the  far  East,  it  would  not  be  practicable  for  tlie  imperial  gov- 
ernment at  this  moment  to  take  part  in  such  a  conference.  While 
this  reply,  tending  as  it  does  to  cause  some  postponement  of  the 
proposed  second  conference,  is  depj)ly  regretted,  the  weight  of 
the  motive  whicOi  induces  it  is  recognized  by  this  government  and 
probal)ly  by  others.  Jiipan  made  the  reservation  only  that  no  action 
should  be  taken  by  the  conference  relative  to  the  present  war. 


170  WORLD  ORPxANIZATION 

Although  the  prospect  of  an  early  convocation  of  an  august 
assembly  of  representatives  of  the  nations  in  the  interests  of 
peace  and  harmony  among  them  is  deferred  for  the  time  being, 
it  may  be  regarded  as  assured  so  soon  as  the  interested  powers 
are  in  a  position  to  agree  upon  a  date  and  place  of  meeting  and 
to  join  in  the  fornmlation  of  a  general  plan  for  discussion.  The 
President  is  much  gratified  at  the  cordial  reception  of  his  over- 
tures. He  feels  that  in  eliciting  the  common  sentiment  of  the 
various  governments  in  favor  of  the  principle  involved  and  of 
the  objects  sought  to  be  attained  a  notable  step  has  been  taken 
toward  eventual  success. 

Pending  a  definite  agreement  for  meeting  when  circumstances 
shall  permit,  it  seems  desirable  that  a  comparison  of  views  should 
be  had  among  the  participants  as  to  the  scope  and  matter  of  the 
subjects  to  be  brought  before  the  second  conference.  The  invita- 
tion put  forth  by  the  government  of  the  United  States  did  not 
attempt  to  do  more  than  indicate  the  general  topics  which  the 
final  act  of  the  first  conference  of  The  Hague  relegated,  as  unfin- 
ished matters,  to  consideration  by  a  future  conference,  adverting 
in  connection  with  the  important  subject  of  the  inviolability  of 
private  property  in  naval  warfare  to  the  like  views  expressed  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  in  its  resolutions  adopted 
April  28,  1904,  with  the  added  suggestion  that  it  may  be  desir- 
able to  consider  and  adopt  a  procedure  by  which  states  non- 
signatory  to  the  original  acts  of  the  Hague  Conference  may 
become  adhering  parties. 

In  the  present  state  of  the  project  this  government  is  still 
iuflisposed  to  formulate  a  program.  Tn  view  of  the  virtual  cer- 
tainty that  the  President's  suggestion  of  The  Hague  as  the  place 
of  meeting  of  a  second  peace  conference  will  be  accepted  by  all 
the  interested  powers  and  in  view  also  of  the  fact  that  an  organ- 
ized representation  of  the  signatories  of  the  acts  of  1899  now 
exists  at  that  capital,  this  government  feels  that  it  should  not 
assume  tlie  initiative  in  drawing  up  a  program  nor  preside  over 
the  deliberations  of  the  signatories  in  that  I'egard.  It  seems  to 
the  President  that  the  high  task  he  undertook  in  seeking  to  bring 
about  an  agreement  of  the  powers  to  meet  in  a  second  peace 


APPENDIX  r  171 

conference  is  virtually  accomplished  so  far  as  it  is  appropriate  for 
him  to  act,  and  that  with  the  general  acceptance  of  his  invitation 
in  principle  the  future  conduct  of  the  affair  may  fitly  follow  its 
normal  channels. 

To  this  end  it  is  suggested  that  the  further  and  necessary 
interchange  of  views  between  the  signatories  of  the  acts  of  1809 
be  effected  through  the  international  bureau  under  the  control 
of  the  permanent  administrative  council  of  The  Hague.  It  is 
believed  that  in  this  way,  by  utilizing  the  central  representative 
agency  establislied  and  maintained  by  the  powers  themselves,  an 
orderly  treatment  of  the  i^reliminary  consultations  may  be  insured 
and  the  way  left  clear  for  the  eventual  action  of  the  government 
of  the  Netherlands  in  calling  a  renewed  conference  to  assemble  at 
The  Hague,  should  that  course  be  adopted.  You  will  bring  this 
communication  to  the  knowledge  of  the  minister  for  foreign 
affairs  and  invite  consideration  of  the  suggestions  herein  made. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

John  Hay. 


APPENDIX  I 

RESOLUTION  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CONCxREGATIONAL 

COUNCIL 

At  the  regular  triennial  meeting  of  the  National  Con- 
gregational Council  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  October  12-20, 
1904,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  unanimously  : 

Resolved,  that  the  National  Council  of  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  the  United  States,  desiring  to  promote  the  peace  of 
the  world,  hereby  gives  its  support  to  the  resolution  unanimously 
passed  by  the  Massachusetts  legislature  in  1903  in  favor  of  a 
regular  international  congress  to  deliberate  upon  the  various 
questions  of  connuon  interest  to  the  nations  and  to  make  recom- 
mendations thereon  to  the  governments,  and  respectfully  petitions 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  take  favorable  action  1  hereon. 


172  WORLD  ORGANIZATION 

Resolved,  that  a  copy  of  this  resolution  be  forwarded  to  Con- 
gress by  the  moderator  and  secretary  of  this  council. 

Resolutions  of  similar  purport  were  adopted  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts state  convention  of  Christian  Endeavor  societies 
and  by  other  religious  bodies.  Christian  Endeavor  societies 
have  sent  to  each  branch  of  the  United  States  Congress 
1G^2  memorials,  representing  at  least  100,000  members  of 
those  societies,  supporting  the  Massachusetts  resolutions. 
Every  state  and  territory  was  represented.  This  large 
work  was  done  by  the  Christian  Endeavor  World,  through 
its  managing  editor,  Amos  R.  Wells. 


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